Never Again
by InuyashasGrl26
Summary: After dealing with a nasty divorce, Kagome and a Sadden widower Inuyasha say the same thing, "Never again will I fall in love." But boy are they both wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Never Again

Summary: After dealing with a nasty divorcee, Kagome and widower Inuyasha. Both of them both say the same thing, "Never again will I fall in love." But boy are they both wrong.

Chapter 1

The rain pours down hard onto a grave. A few people with umbrellas to keep themselves dried from the rain surround the particular item. All dressed in black means on thing; someone has passed away. It's typical to be in such a thing. As each one person in the group throw a flower into the burial site, one isn't ready to do his part. Just standing there, he is petrified emotionally. Not to move a single limp of his body. His one friend just looks at him worriedly. Not knowing what to say because it might hurt him even more. Dressed in a black suit, with long silver hair, golden eyes, clawed hands, and akita ears on his head.

"Mr. Takahashi." The head person calls out to him. The one who's last name is call moves forward automatically, not really sure on what to do at this point. "Is there anything you want to say before she's buried." The head person asks him quietly for a personal thing. As such the man looks to the casket that has his deceased wife in. Knowing there's one thing to say. "Yes." He replies to him. He goes to the casket and places his one hand onto the woman's pale cold face, "Never again will I fall in love. Every time I do that, I lose them right then and there. I promise." As soon as he steps back from the casket, the lid closes, and the device lowers down slowly. "May her soul rest in peace."

A few minutes later, the group dispersed as the man and his friend remain. "I'm ready to go, Inuyasha." The man said to him, trying to get his attention. "You go on ahead, Miroku. I'm going to stay here for a few more minutes." Inuyasha replies back, still not ready to leave his spot. Miroku silently sighs as he can see the grave has Kikyo's name on it with the day she was born to the day of her death. Turns out that she was only 22 years old when she died. For the cause of her death was breast cancer. Miroku knows that much. He doesn't like the way how life can be cruel and take the ones who are dear to Inuyasha away. "I'm done." Inuyasha tells Miroku as he turns around. "Done with what?" He asks curiously. "I'm done falling in love. I lost my mother in a car accident. My dad was killed after I was born. And my brother could care less about me. Never again." Inuyasha confirms it as he walks to the car in the parking lot of the cemetery. Miroku quietly follows him.

Somewhere in town, a courtroom is filled with two individuals. "You both have been officially divorced." The judge pounds the mallet onto the desk. The girl one on side is secretly glad. "Good riddance." She crossed her arms. The man on the other hand isn't too thrilled. "Likewise." He comments back. "Come on, Kagome. Let's get our of here." He friend Sango guides her out of the courtroom. "This is the end, Kagome." The man calls out to her. "She doesn't need to hear more of your bull, Koga. She's through with you as we speak. You have no right to be near her. Remember, you're on a restraining order from now on." Sango warns him as the girls left the building.

Sango drives Kagome to their local coffee shop. "Am I doing the right thing, Sango." Kagome asks as she takes a sip of her cappuccino. "Kagome, would I ever lie to you?" Sango teases her before drinking her mocha latte. Kagome just glares before sipping again. "You had to the judge to prove my point. I shouldn't have married that jerk in the first place." Kagome explains to her. "You were forced to marry him because of your parents' recommendations." Sango reminds her for how it all started. Kagome looks down to her reflection in the drink. "My parents think they know what's best for me. But from what happened up until now, they are dead wrong." Kagome speaks so agitated from the tone of her voice. "So what are they going to say when they find out about your divorce?" Sango asks her curiously. "I could care less for what they think about it." Kagome replies before continuing drinking.

Just hearing that made Sango think twice on how to continue on with the topic. "Maybe they'll understand. Besides they don't even know about Koga's backstory." She tries to cheer her up. Kagome shakes her head. "No, my parents believe in whatever Koga said to them. And since he and I divorced, they'd probably through a fit about it. And boy my father isn't the understanding type. He'd say 'It's for your own good.'. Like I care." Sango is now stumped. "Looks like you're going have to confess to them. Even my sharp tongue isn't going to work on them." She comments. "Apparently your tongue can convince most people, but not my parents, even if whatever you tell them is true."

Sango nods, "No doubt about it." Kagome pulls out her phone to delete he ex husband's number. "Never again." She speaks. "Never what?" Sango asks her. "Never again will I fall in love. If I did I'd be the victim. And for what Koga did to me was unforgettable. I'm not going on that road again." Kagome seriously said as she stands up. Knowing what Kagome's doing, Sango decides to call it a day, as well as hoping for Kagome's parents to take Kagome's news respectfully. And hopefully encouragingly.

Kagome drives back to her apartment. As soon as she enters the building, there were two people in her kitchen. "Mom, dad." She greets them nonchalantly though. She has no idea what they might react for what she has to tell them for what she did. The parents turn to her with a look that Kagome cannot seem to describe. Her one thought is that of. 'Here we go.'.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Just like Kagome thought, her parents weren't really the proudest pair. That she can tell right off the bat. "I heard what you did, Kagome." The father spoke first. Kagome knew for sure that this isn't going to end well. From what she knows about her own father is that he's more of the demanding one as well as intimidating. That alone was how Kagome was always on the scared side. She was so afraid of him throughout her life. Not one single day has her father even shown any positive sides. "How was it that you know what I did, dad?" Kagome asks carefully.

Mr. Higurashi walks around the kitchen island and sits onto the couch. Kagome sees her mother silently following him to the living room. "I mean about what for your divorce Kagome. Koga told me after you two left the courtroom." Mr. Higurashi gets to the point. "And let me guess, you were disappointed about this?" Kagome assumes as she sits in the other couch. "What were you thinking, Kagome. Koga is perfect for you. How could you be like this?" Mr. Higurashi keeps his temper at a minimum, hoping not to scare his daughter.

"Dad, you don't know the real Koga. He's not the one for me. And you for all of people should've noticed that after he and I got married. Do you have any idea what he did to me over the last 3 years? It was nothing but hell." Kagome responds as calmly as she could, despite already being scared. Mrs. Higurashi blinks her eyes to see Kagome lift her shirt to reveal bruises all over her. "How did you get those?" She asks her daughter curiously.

When it comes to a mother's instincts, if her daughter is hurt, it's her duty to treat those wounds. "Koga did this. All I did was disagree on something and then he beat me up." Kagome answers as she puts her shirt down. Mr. Higurashi never saw this coming. "What was the argument about?" Kagome looks down in shame. "It was for a place to go out to dinner. But as usual, he had to pick a bar while I suggested that we go to a nicer restaurant. As such he always wins." Kagome closes her eyes to prevent any tears escaping. That's when Mr. Higurashi stood up. Fearing that her father will do something bad too her, Kagome embraces herself for what he might do to her.

Instead he wraps her in his arms. "Oh Kagome. I'm so sorry for the way I put you through. I would never expect Koga to be the violent type. From now on, you are to chose whoever you want to marry." He actually said that in sincerity. Never in her life would Kagome have ever expected her own father to be opened up with guilt and shame.

All Kagome do is sobs quietly in his arms. "No more, daddy." She managed to say to him. "No more what?" He pulls away to see her face. "I don't want to be in that position again. Never again. After what Koga did to me, I promise myself never to fall in love again. I don't want to go through that pain again." As such she walks away into the hallway and into her bedroom.

Mr. Higurashi is about to go after to her, until his wife stopped. "Honey. Kagome's been through tough times. The marriage thing was decided between you and your business partner in order for them to take over after you and your partner retired. But from the looks of it, Kagome is not meant to be in that field of work." She tells him seriously as she tries her best to hold her own tears. She just couldn't bare to see her daughter cry.

Knowing that she was right, Mr. Higurashi nods. "Yes. I should've seen this sooner. I was just so blind to the truth. After what Kagome told me. I felt that I wanted to give that man a piece of my mind the next time I see him. There's no telling when he'll show up." With the new feelings of protecting Kagome, Mr. Higurashi is going to have to be careful with his business partner because it turns out that Koga is his son, so there's no guarantee that this is going to end well. Not by a long shot. As such, the parents decide to leave their daughter's apartment and head home.

Somewhere else in the city, Inuyasha is working on his laptop to look at the will of Kikyo's death. Even though he's depressed he had to go through what Kikyo decided to leave for him. From what he can gather, Kikyo has left her possessions to her younger sister Kaede. Inuyasha did get a few things as well. From the furniture they bought together to their deed of their house. He's fine with that. The things that Kaede got were her personal items such as clothes and jewelry. According to Kaede, if Inuyasha were to ever see any of Kikyo's clothes, it'd bring back memories. Inuyasha didn't mind that. "Hey man." Miroku greets him as he comes into the office.

"Oh hey there." Inuyasha replies before closing the laptop. "I thought we could go somewhere tonight." He tries his best to cheer him up. No. "Thanks, but I'm not in the mood to go out. I have to go through a few things with the insurance, and the possessions." Inuyasha gloomily replies back to him. Miroku walks to him friend and grabs his shoulder. "Inuyasha. It's only been on day and you feel it's the end of the world." He points out.

"It does feel like the end of the world for me. And I'm not ready to start all over again." Inuyasha takes his friend's hand off of his shoulder. "Inuyasha. I know how that feels. You're not the only one who had to walk down on that road. Everyone has." Miroku tries his persuasion to get Inuyasha out of his depressive state. "Miroku, I know you mean well, but now's not the time for me to begin again. I need to sort my things, and then when the time comes, I'll begin." Inuyasha speaks out to him. All Miroku does is shake his head. "Alright, whenever that time starts, you let me know." He then leaves the place.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next morning, Kagome wakes up to the sound of her alarm clock. She turns it off and goes into the bathroom to wash up. At least she doesn't have to share the bathroom ever again with her ex. Koga would always have the most space of the bathroom, leaving Kagome with practically nothing. But now he's gone, Kagome gets all the space she needs. Like any master en suite there's two individual mirrors. A huge shower and a soaker tub. Why bother with this waste of space? It's way too much for her. But then again, Kagome doesn't mind at all. After getting out of the shower, she goes into her walk in closet to decide on what to wear for the day.

Being in College can be quite a hassle. Kagome's going for nursing, so that she can help those in need of health. After putting on her jeans, a blue v-neck shirt and her white fleece sweater, Kagome grabs her purse and keys to go meet Sango at their usual café by the campus. As soon as she gets out of the apartment building the rain begins to pour. "Great. I was told that it wasn't going to rain." Kagome complains as she gets into her car quickly so she doesn't get wet.

Inuyasha is driving down on the highway to the campus. He's going for drafting. He just had a knack of designing rockets, aircrafts or any other transportation vehicles. As soon as he gets onto the exit off the highway, he waits at the red light. Soon enough, another vehicle waits in the next lane. Little did he know that vehicle next to him is Kagome. As soon as the light turned green, Inuyasha drives to take a left onto the main street. Not just him, but also Kagome.

Inuyasha pulls into the campus parking lot. After a few spots he finds a free one. He quickly pulls into it and turns off the car. But he doesn't get out of his car. Knowing that it's raining, he reaches into his back seat and grabs his umbrella. He opens up the down and then opens up the umbrella. He also gets his backpack out of the car.

Inuyasha begins to walk down the parking lot towards the campus. He spots the car almost about to hit him. The screeching tires gets his immediate attention. He looks up to see the car. "Hey Are you okay? Did I hit you?" The driver asks as she pops her out through the open window on her side of the car. "Yeah I'm fine." Inuyasha replies before walking away. Kagome quickly gets her head back into her car and finds herself a parking spot.

Inuyasha enters the campus where his classes take place. He shakes the umbrella and closes it. "Hey." Miroku comes up to him. Inuyasha looks up to him. "Oh hey." Miroku can tell that Inuyasha is still depressed. Not just that, his eyes are getting the bags underneath them. Hinting it's the lack of sleep. That's proof enough that Inuyasha isn't getting enough sleep due to the death of his wife. "We should get going." Miroku tells him. Inuyasha silently nods as he follows him down the hall.

Kagome enters the science center of the campus. Nursing school requires the anatomy of the human body so it was necessary for Kagome to learn as much as possible. She enters the lecture's room. She then spots Sango in the few rows up. "Hey there." Sango waves to her. Kagome sits next to her. "Thanks a lot for ditching me." Kagome crossed her arms in a playful pout. Sango nervously giggles. "I was called in a bit earlier than expected, Sorry." She explains her excuse. Even if it was true, Kagome would have no choice but to believe it. "Fine. But you owe me a latte after this." Kagome leans back as she gets her laptop out of her backpack and wait patiently for the professor to begin his lecture.

About an hour later, Inuyasha leaves his designer class. "I'm going to get something to drink from the café. Want anything?" Miroku asks him. Inuyasha shakes his head. "No I'm good. I'll see you later." Inuyasha walks away towards a different direction of the building. Miroku can still tell that Inuyasha is not himself. "Hey, you know you can come back until you're ready to get back onto your feet." He goes after him. They head towards the science center. "I wish I could, but I have to focus on my degree." Inuyasha replied back to him. "Inuyasha with all due in respect, you're not really being focus at all today." Miroku comments to him seriously. "So, you're saying that losing Kikyo is what is causing me to not be focus?" Inuyasha glares at him. Miroku keeps his calm posture. "I mean you no harm. Like I said, people have to go through this road." He reminds him.

Kagome looks up from the note taking on her laptop. She then spots the boy she almost hit earlier. "Hey." Sango nudges her. "What?" She asks in a whisper. "Pay attention." Sango gestures her head towards the front. Kagome can see that the professor is writing something on the board. "And the nervous system is the main source of psychological issues…" The professor explains the properties of the nervous system. 'Mental illnesses are one thing that can form in over a period of time.' Kagome mocks as she writes it down on her laptop.

Sango is working to be a pathologist. Helping out to determine to know what disease is presented, depending on the symptoms of the problem. So, this class is perfect for her. After a few minutes, the professor turns around. "Ok class. There's a few ways I'd like you to do." He tells the room. "For I'd like you to find someone who went through a rough time, know what caused them to be that way, and see if you can find a solution for them to get over their state." He instructs the room. A few of the students groan, not really looking forward to it. "It's extra credit if you put your mind to it." The professor persuades, hoping to have his point across.

"May you can be my subject." Sango teases her. Kagome raised her eyebrow. "I'll take that as a no?" She frowns. "A firm no, Sango. I'm into that topic as we speak." Kagome replies as she gets her backpack. "Oh come on Kagome. For what you've been through would be perfect for me." Sango comes up to her. Kagome turns her gaze. "This is more of a personal topic, Sango. I don't want anyone to know what I've been through. Not to mention, it's embarrassing. And maybe humiliating." Kagome explains why she's against. "And besides, I think that professor doesn't know anything about public, and personal problems. Which is why I'm not doing it. And neither are you, Sango." Kagome adds her own advice. Sango shrugs her shoulders. "Ok. I won't do you." She promised. But then again, she's more than eager to do it despite Kagome's rejections.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By the end of the classes, Sango heads out to her car. "Hey, Sango you got a minute." Miroku asks as he comes to her. "Oh hi." Sango fiddles with her keys to unlock the vehicle. "I saw you in that science classroom. You not in that class." He speaks to her while crossing his arms. "I was there for moral support. Kagome's been through a hard time since that divorce. That Koga was nothing but a manipulating douchebag that Kagome's parents didn't know about." Sango explains to him why she was with Kagome. Miroku just shakes his head. "No wonder. Kagome is probably going through the worse. Inuyasha is kind of going through the same thing." Miroku agrees with her. Soon enough the doors unlock so that Sango could get in. "Which is why this could be a good idea for Kagome's extra credit project." Sango said to him as her lowers the window.

"Like what exactly?" Miroku asks her curiously. "For what Kagome's professor instructed, the student must interview another person who went through a rough time, know what caused them to be that way, and see if you can find a solution for them to get over their state." Miroku seems intrigued. "Maybe she can interview Inuyasha." He gives his opinion. Sango shakes her head. "Kagome is adamant about not taking the project. She feels that it's going into someone else's personal business. She's not that kind of girl who would spread gossip behind someone's back." Sango responds as she puts her car out of the parking lot. "All I can say is that I'm not going to sit by the sidelines and watch Kagome go through that." As such she leaves Miroku. Miroku sighs as he goes to his car and leave the campus with something up his sleeve.

Kagome walks into the lecture room where her science class was taking place. "Excuse me. Professor?" She knocks on the door to get the man's attention. "Yes, what is it Kagome?" He asks as he is gathering his papers. "I'm just not sure about taking the extra credit project." Kagome said nervously. "Oh yes. About that. I somehow forgot to give the missing detail is that either you want to present it or have me look at it privately." The professor chuckles. "I'm quite aware about the gossiping that goes around. I just wanted to see if you can just interview someone who went through a hard moment, and then so on." The professor spoke a bit more specifically about the assignment. Kagome kind finds it a bit more interesting. 'Something to get my mind off the major issue I'm going through. No way I'm going to write about myself because I went through hell.' She nods. "Ok, If I do this, I'd appreciate it if you just review it privately. I'm not much of a talker when it comes to presentations." She smiles confidently. The professor smiles. "Don't worry, you have my word. Only your work is only for me to see and no one else." The man assures her as he leaves the room with her behind him.

As soon as the conversation ended, Kagome goes the other direction to go to the campus parking lot. Not just her, Inuyasha is walking out from another door of the campus building. He looks up to see Kagome. Just looking at her made him think of Kikyo. 'I promised.' He swore to himself. No way he's going to fall into the trap of false love. No way. No how. As he walks down the sidewalk to get to his car. He spots her getting into her car which isn't that far from him. Kagome drives out of the parking lot and onto the streets. Trying his best not to be tempted, he follows but behind a few cars so that Kagome wouldn't notice him following wherever she goes.

Kagome pulls into the apartment complex. The apartments are in a nice lot property. For those who live or rent there have a key card to get into the building so there's not burglary. Even the parking spots have marks so that whoever stay there know where to park their car. Kagome pulls into the side streets to find her parking spot. As soon as she pulls into the reserved parking spot, she recognizes a familiar vehicle a few spots from hers. "Oh no." She is scared now. Even if she were to get out of her care, the driver would spot her and go after her. "I'm trapped." A few seconds later Inuyasha comes into the apartment complex and spots, Kagome's car in the parking spot. Being a visitor of the place, he has to park in one of the visitor parking spots, but a few from Kagome's spot. As soon as he put the car in park, he spots her still in her car. Using his keen eyes, he can clearly see she's trembling. But from what though?

Kagome calls Sango's phone. A few rings pass. "Hello?" Sango finally answers her phone. "Sango, could you please come pick me from my apartment." Kagome is begging her. "Why? Is something wrong with the place?" She asks her own question. "It's not what's wrong with the place. It's who's there." Kagome keeps herself calm. "Please don't tell me he's there." Sango is shocked as soon as she asked. "He's here. And I think he's waiting for me to come out of my car, expect me to get into my apartment, and then he's going to attack me." Kagome explains what's going on. "Ok. I'll head over. You are to stay in your car and not get out no matter what." Sango gives her orders to her friend before hanging up.

Little did Kagome know, Inuyasha kind of eavesdropped the conversation. "So that other guy is here. Well. I'm not going to sit here and her get hurt by him. As such he gets out of his car. He doesn't want Kagome to get suspicious about his plans on what he's going to do. He just walks casually across the sidewalk, passing Kagome. Kagome blinks her eyes. Despite what Sango told her earlier, Kagome rolls down the window a little to get a better look of Inuyasha. 'I've seen him before.' She tells herself. She remembers seeing him in the parking lot, and outside of her classroom. She watches him carefully. And hoping for the worse not to happen to her, and to the white haired boy.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Inuyasha walks up to the car that parked a few parking spots away. Never in his head would even anticipate him to go through this. He walks up to the driver side and knocks on the window to get his attention. The window rolls down to reveal to be a man, close to his own age. With black hair in a high ponytail and icy blue eyes, Inuyasha can tell right away that this is the guy that freaked out the girl in the other car. "Can I help you?" The driver asks as he lowers his sunglasses. "Apparently you can." Inuyasha leans in a bit closer. "Like what?" The driver asks as he tilts his head. Inuyasha moves back to show the driver something. "You see there?" He starts off pointing to Kagome's car. "You are to stay away from that woman. You hear me." He warns the driver.

Meanwhile Kagome watches the scene unfold. 'What is that guy doing?' She asks curiously. From the looks of it, the guy she recognizes is talking with that guy she's afraid of. The driver comes out of the vehicle. "Who do you think you are? You have no right whatsoever to tell me what to do. And it's none of your business to meddle with my own. So you stay out of it from now on." He warns back.

Soon enough Sango pulls into the parking lot. She knows where Kagome's parking spot is so she makes sure she gets to the visiting spot. She quickly comes out. Load and behold she sees Koga quarreling with the white haired guy. "Koga, you dick. What do you think you're doing here!?" Sango walks up to him with a mad expression. "What's it to you, Sango? I came here to visit a friend of mine here. I'm not even near Kagome as we speak." Koga responds as he crossed his arms.

Sango isn't convinced one bit. "No. You're violating your prohibition, as well as the restraining order the court decided. And from the looks of it, you're not even close to be at that distance. And not to mention, you don't have anyone living here. So get your ass, go back into your car, and leave at once." She warns him more threaten that Inuyasha did. Knowing that she's scary, Koga literally did what he was told and left the place. As soon as Koga left the property, Kagome comes out of her car. "He didn't hurt you?" She asks Sango as she walks up to her and Inuyasha. "I'm good. It's a good you called." Sango takes a hold of Kagome's shoulder to calm her down.

"What was that all about?" Inuyasha ask Sango. Kagome turns around. "Hey, I almost hit you with my car at the campus." Inuyasha blinks his golden eyes. "I'm sorry?" He's confused. "I was about to turn and you had your umbrella up to protect yourself from the rain." She explains to him. "Oh yeah. Sorry I didn't mean to not see you there. I was just going through a hard time. I just wasn't paying any attention at the time." He just tells her. He's still in that state. "Anyway. What was that guy anyway?" He asks Sango. Kagome never saw this coming. "I'm his ex wife, and we went through a divorce. Ever since, he's been on a restraining order. But from the looks of it. He doesn't really like it." Kagome simply told him as she gets her backpack from her car and go into the apartment.

Sango turns to him. "That's Koga. He's the one who had been giving Kagome a hard time. But that's I'm allowed to tell you. Rather Kagome wants to give you more about, it's up to here." She explains the scenario. She then leaves to go into the apartment building that Kagome went into.

Inuyasha decides to call this day crazy. That's for sure. Never have he ever stood up for a girl he doesn't know. He was more of the quiet type until he met Kikyo in High School. She was the only one there who knew the real him. And he couldn't be happier about it. They dated for a few months until Inuyasha gathered enough courage to ask her hand in married. Kikyo immediately said yes and they got married in about a year. But the marriage didn't last long. About a month after the wedding, Kikyo was informed that she had stage 3 breast cancer. Inuyasha had no idea about it throughout the time. He was told that Kikyo only had a month or two to live.

Even with the insurance to pay off the chemo, nothing worked. The cancer was too severe that Kikyo only made it for a week. Ever since then, Inuyasha never wanted to go through that again. He enters his own apartment. Somehow his instincts were telling him to tell that Koga dickhead to leave Kagome alone. He opens his door and turns on the lights. "Hello, Little Brother." A male voice greets him. Just hearing that made him groans in annoyance. "When I greet you, Inuyasha, what do you do in return?" The male asks him. "Hello, Sesshomaru. What brings you here?" Inuyasha politely greets his brother.

Sesshomaru stands up from the recliner he was lounging in. "I'm here to help finalize your work. I thought that I might be here for moral support." He said to him. Inuyasha goes into the fridge to get something to drink. "Ok. I'm still trying to get through the lost." He grabs a bottle of water. Being nice he got one for Sesshomaru. "But there's something else that manage to get you out of that depression." Sesshomaru said as he gladly takes the bottled water. "So I guess Miroku told you what happened." Inuyasha speaks first before he sits onto the sofa.

Sesshomaru follows him into the living room. "Miroku didn't call me. It from Sango?" Inuyasha blinks his eyes. Clearly he's missing out more than he thought. "How is it that you know Sango? You never met her before." He points out. "Not too long ago. I met Miroku at the grocery store and Sango was with him at the time." Sesshomaru chuckles. All Inuyasha could do is sigh. "So are you going to tell me what happened I'm dying for some juicy gossip." Sesshomaru grins at his brother.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Inuyasha is not really into telling his older brother what he did. But due to his persuasive expression speaks otherwise. "How much do you know about my time?" Inuyasha asks him first. He's trying to get find how much he found out from Sango. Sesshomaru chuckles. "I'll tell you…"

_Flashback_

_ Sesshomaru is going through the produce area of the super market. "Hey there Sesshomaru." Miroku calls out to him. Sesshomaru looks up to see Miroku with a girl with him. "Oh hey there, Miroku. Who's this?" He asks his friend. Miroku smiles widely. "This here is Sango Taijiya. Sango this is Sesshomaru Takahashi." Sango offers her hand. "Nice to meet you." She greets him. "Pleasure." Sesshomaru greets back. "So what brings you here?" He asks them. Sango looks around the produce. "I'm just looking for fruits to make smoothies for Kagome. She's been through a rough time awhile ago." Sango tells him as she finds a pack of strawberries, watermelons, and pineapples. "Why, what happened?" Sesshomaru asks. _

_ Miroku frowns, "Sango had to protect Kagome from her ex-husband. He's on a restraining order as we speak." Sesshomaru didn't see this coming. "What did he do to her?" He asks curiously. "Sango managed to finish up the job because Inuyasha was there." Just hearing that made Sesshomaru gasps in surprise. "My brother was there?" He turns to him. Miroku nods. "Yeah. And that's all I know." He spoke as he goes meet Sango at the check out. _

_End of Flashback_

Inuyasha just holds his head. "Really? Miroku doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut." He groans. Sesshomaru sighs. "I'm surprised to know about this. But why did you go to that girl's apartment in the first place?" Inuyasha looks up. "I just felt liked it. But then again, she resemblances Kikyo." He honestly answers. Sesshomaru blinks his golden eyes. "Come again?" He's not sure on what to say next. There's no way in his life would Sesshomaru would expect anything like this. "I know. It's shocking due to that expression you're showing." Inuyasha comments his brother's posture. "I was about to leave the campus until she passed me. I was going to come back home, but somehow my head is telling me to follow her. And when I arrived at her apartment there was another car in the lot and it turns out that girl would get out of her car to go inside." Inuyasha explains to him.

Sesshomaru places his elbow onto the recliner's arm rest and places his chin onto his hand. "Ok. So that girl is scared. And then what?" He raised his one eyebrow. Inuyasha narrows his eyes. "I confronted him. I warned him to stay away from her." He admits to him. "So then that's when Sango came in and told him to leave at once." Sesshomaru assumes to him. All Inuyasha is nod.

So much being told about what happen managed to get Sesshomaru intrigued. "I see. Well I know for sure you're not one to stick your nose into someone else's business." He reminds his brother. "I know, but somehow I just had to do it." Inuyasha defends himself, letting his brother know what's been doing. "I get that, Inuyasha. Somehow you just had that urge to do it no matter what. I'm curious if you're going to do this more often?"

Inuyasha is not sure himself if he really is going to do it again. "I'm not sure myself. I'd say it's instincts. And I never had that when I was married with Kikyo." Sesshomaru stands up. "Take my word. You may think that you're doing the right, and yet some think it's the wrong. But that's up to you to decide. And hopefully they agree with it." He leaves the place.

An hour later, Inuyasha just finished his dinner as he load up the dishwasher. "What on earth was that all about? Me to decide and the others to agree. The nerve." He groans as he stands up. He know better. Sesshomaru is a psychiatrist. Either for couples, family, or children. He uses his persuasive attitude to get his clients to open up what they did and why they ended up where they are. "Who knows. I bet that girl is going to be one of his newest clients." He mocks as he goes to the bathroom to wash up.

Sango comes out of her car with the bag full of fruits that she got from the super market with Miroku. She comes up to the doors that has the buttons, one for each apartment. She knows which button to press. "Who is it?" Kagome's voice asks over the speaker. "It's me. I got you some goodies." Sango said back to her. Soon the door unlocks to allow Sango to enter the building. She goes to the elevator and presses the floor button for which floor Kagome lives on which is the fifth floor. The doors opens up on the fifth floor. Sango takes a right until she gets to the door that said 5D. She opens up the door to let herself in. "Kagome?" Sango calls out to her friend.

Kagome rinses her face off. "Kagome?" Sango's voice calls out to her. "I'm in here." Kagome calls back. Sango places the bag onto the counter and goes to the bathroom. "You okay?" Sango peaks to see Kagome drying her face. "Maybe." Kagome turns her sight to Sango with a grim look. "What did you get me?" She asks her as she gets out of the bathroom.

Sango comes into the kitchen to pull out the fruits out of the bag. "I know exactly what you need." She smiles as she goes into the cupboards to pull out a blender. "You need your comfort smoothies." She tells as she plugs in the appliance. All Kagome does in sit on the stool just watching Sango do her smoothie magic. "Kagome, I know how traumatized you were so I know how it's not going to be easy to get over it." Sango speaks as she adds some strawberries with other ingredients such as yogurt, sugar into the blender.

Kagome only nods because she knows that Sango is right about one thing. Even with the restraining order, Koga would do anything to get close to Kagome. "I have to tell you Kagome, Koga is not going to stay away from you. I was only managed to get him leave but I cannot promise you how much more I'm going to keep warning him." Sango seriously tells Kagome.

"The least the guy should be is house arrested." Kagome comments dryly. All Sango could is laugh at that. "I couldn't agree with you more. I think that's what he should've been in the first place." She pours the smoothie into a huge cup and added the straw with it. "Then why wasn't he?" Kagome asks as she takes the cup that Sango handed to her. "The judge didn't consider him as a threat. There are certain charges that can get him house arrested though." She hopefully tells Kagome as she makes herself one for herself.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Kagome finished her 3rd cup of her comfort smoothie. "Kagome, you're going to be sick if you keep that." Sango takes away the cup and puts it into the dish washer. "Really, Sango? I'm not done." Kagome just whines, begging to have another serving. Sango can tell that Kagome is being desperate about this. "Sorry Kagome. Besides you used up all the ingredients I just bought from the grocery store." She explains in the end.

All Kagome could do is pout. "And don't think you're going out either." Sango takes away the keys. "Sango, don't. I have to go visit my family tomorrow." She tries to grab the stolen keys to her car. "Don't worry, I'll bring them back first thing in the morning. I'm not going to have you get wasted." She narrows her eyes to prove her point. "I'll be here by 8 at the latest. Make sure you're up by then." She smiles in the end and leaves the apartment with her friend's car keys.

Inuyasha finally closes his apartment door after Sesshomaru left. "Finally, that guy doesn't know when to keep his mouth shout." He groans as he gets into his bedroom. He phone chimes, telling him that he has a text message. "I bet he left something here." He mocks as he opens up the phone to see that it was a text message from Miroku. Inuyasha reads it. "Come to the apartment building where you faced off that dickhead." Inuyasha didn't see this coming. "How come?" He texted back.

Inuyasha goes into his closet to change into a pair of sweat pants and a gray t-shirt. The phone chimes again. "Sango has Kagome's car keys so that Kagome would leave the property to go drink." The text read to him with an exclamation mark in the end. "Not my problem. It's late as we speak. I'm going to bed." Inuyasha texted back quickly. He's not in the mode. Just when he is about to turn off the light, the phone rings. All Inuyasha can do is groan and answer. "Miroku, I'm not really into this kind of thing." He speaks to him agitated. "It's me Sango." Sango's voice is heard from the other end. "Sango, what is going on? Why do you have Miroku's phone?" He asks her. "I had to use Miroku's phone because your number in on his phone and not mine. Besides, Miroku was waiting in the parking lot while I was trying to cheer up Kagome after that fiasco that you almost got yourself into trouble." She said to him.

"Miroku stayed at the apartment while you had to cheer Kagome up. How long were you there?" Inuyasha asks her, seeing that it's pass 9 pm in the evening. "Miroku had to drop me off before he came back to pick me up." Sango answers. "Now get your ass up and come to the apartment pronto." She demands him in the end. "Fine. Give me about five minutes." He hangs up.

Back in the car Miroku is given his phone. "What did he say?" He asks Sango who is grinning. "He's coming." She turns to him. Miroku on the other hand isn't really thrilled about this. "Sango, Inuyasha is not ready to go out again, He has to finish the paperwork of his deceased wife. What does coming here have to do with this?" He crosses his arms. Sango leans back. "You remember when I told you what happened today? I for one, was able to see something in his eyes when he stood up against Koga." All Miroku does is shake his head. "Seriously Sango, you have to stay out of other people's business." He tells her.

"And that's where you're wrong." She gazes at him. All he does is raise his one eyebrow. "How wrong am I on this conversation?" Sango sits. "Kagome came in and spotted Koga. I told her that if at any given time Koga was near her, I'd have to call the police and to file a report of abuse." She explains to him. Soon after that sentence, Miroku sees highlights arriving at the apartment parking lot. "And there he is." She opens up the door to get out and waves her hand to let the driver know where to park. Miroku shakes his head again.

The new car parks into another visitor parking spot. The driver comes out to reveal Inuyasha with a scowl look. "Sango, this is not recommended." He tells he. Sango walks up to him. "Inuyasha is it recommended." She strongly disagrees with him. "What do you want?" He asks as he crosses his arms rather annoyed with this. Sango gestures her hand for him to follow her. "What is she up to Miroku?" He asks him. "You're guess is as good as mine." He responds in boredom.

Kagome comes out of the bathroom in her fluffy pink robe. The door bell rings gets her attention. "Who would ring my door at a time like this?" She asks herself. She presses the button. "Who is it?" She asks into the microphone. "It's me." Sango speaks to her. She sighs. "Come in." She presses the other button to unlock the doors where Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha are at. After getting into an appropriate outfit of a blue t-shirt, and sweat pants, Kagome waits patiently as she gets herself something to drink. The door opens. "Got my keys, Sango?" Kagome asks as she lifts her head. "No." A different voice tells her.

Kagome is shocked to see the guy who protected her from her ex-husband. "It's you." She murmurs. "Yeah I know. I'm not really one to butt into someone's business." Inuyasha replies as he closes the door behind her. "How did you know where I live in here?" Kagome is beyond angry but her stuttering is preventing that from happening. "Sango told me. Look I just felt that somehow you were in a tough time in your life. I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Inuyasha spoke honestly to her. "I see. Sango is the worried one and she wants you to do the job." Kagome tells him. "I'll leave if that make you feel better." Inuyasha turns around to leave. "I'll have a little chat with Sango. But you can text or call me anytime you like." She smiles as she pats his back and guides him out the door.

As Inuyasha comes to the lobby, he sees Sango and Miroku waiting for him. "Is she going to be ok?" Sango asks quickly. Inuyasha turns his head. "Sango. She's fine. But I'm not going to do your little job to check up on her. She's still hurt as we speak. And not just emotionally, but physically as well." He leaves the building.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The next morning, Kagome cell phone chimes which means she got a text message from someone. She blinks her chocolate brown eyes to see that it's 7:00 AM on a Saturday. On weekends she'd go to her family's shrine to make sure that everyone is okay without her since she left for college. Her tiredly slides the screen to see that the text is from Sango. "I'm waiting at the front door. I have your keys." It said to the girl. Kagome moans as she puts on her robe and slippers after getting out of her cozy warm bed. She goes to the button to unlock the door for Sango to enter the building.

Sango enters the apartment to see Kagome making coffee with bags under her eyes. "Hey, you feeling any better this morning?" Sango asks as she puts Kagome's car keys into her purse. "No. To be honest, I'm not feeling well as we speak." She weakly tells her. Sango comes up to her and places her hand onto Kagome's forehead. "You're warm, I can tell you that much. Are you going back home?" She asks Kagome with concern. Kagome nods, "Yeah but not right now. I have a few things to take care of before I leave." She replies back as she grabs another little coffee package and put it into the coffee machine to make another serving.

"How many of those packs have you've been using? You're too tired." Sango states the obvious. Kagome closes her eyes. "My fourth one. None of the first three are working to wake me up completely." Kagome turns to the coffee as she waits patiently for it to fill up her mug. Sango shakes her head. "Honestly Kagome, you're not feeling well as we speak. I'd call your mother and tell her that you're staying here to get better." Sango strongly suggests. Being too tired as she said, Kagome nods. "Might as well." She agrees as she goes to her cell phone to call her mother.

After dialing her mother's house number, she waits until someone answers the phone. "Higurashi Residence, this is Ai speaking." A woman answers the call. "Mom…" Kagome coughs miserably on the other line. "Kagome, you okay?" Ai asks in more concern. "I won't be able to come this weekend because I'm down with the flu." Kagome manages to tell her mother in between her coughs. "Kagome, don't you dare move. I'm coming over to take care of you." As such she hung up. Kagome groans. "All I do is call my mom and she's on her way here."

When Kagome first moved here, she made sure she gave her mother the address so she wouldn't get lost. Not jus that, even Sango knows her as well. So it won't be a problem for Sango to make sure Ai is guided safely to Kagome's apartment. "I might as well let Sango know." She murmurs as she texts Sango about her mom coming over. A few seconds later, Kagome's phone chimes to let her know that Sango will meet Ai at the front door of the apartment.

About a half an hour later, Sango parks into the visitor spot and waits patiently for Ai to arrive. From what Kagome told her, Ai Higurashi drives a pine green car. She watches the driveway endlessly as each car pass by. Soon enough a green car pulls in and parks into the other visitor spot next to Sango. "Hello, Mrs. Higurashi." Sango greets her. Ai comes out of her car with her purse and a bag with medicines. "Oh they you are, Sango. I'm so worried about my little girl." Ai walks up to her. "And she was just fine yesterday." Sango remembers talking with Kagome the day before. She presses the button to Kagome's apartment.

Ai holds her chin. "I don't know if there's a bug going around." She comments. "Who's there?" Kagome asks in a hushed voice. "It's me, Kagome." Ai speaks back to her. "Ok." Kagome replies as she unlocks the door to let her mother and friend.

Sango and Ai head up to the floor where Kagome's apartment is. "It's this one." Sango tells Mrs. Higurashi. She opens up the door, and see Kagome on the floor passed out. "Kagome!" Ai comes to her daughter and turn her over. She checks her pulse. "She's okay. We need to get her to her bed immediately." Ai tells Sango as she and Sango carry Kagome to her bedroom. Sango is more worried now. "Kagome…" She presses her hand onto her forehead. "She's burning up." She tells the mother. Ai pulls out the thermometer and places it into Kagome's mouth, under the tongue. "Make sure you hold this still so it can get her temperature." Ai tells Sango as she goes back into the kitchen to make something for Kagome drink down.

Sango sits on Kagome's bed, doing as she is being told. Kagome's peachy skin is pale as a ghost. The thermometer beeps. Sango takes out the thermometer and reads the number. "Oh boy." She widens her eyes as she waits for Ai to return. Ai comes in with a mug of tea, and a cool cloth. "What's her temperature?" She asks the girl. "It's 103.3" Sango gives the device to Ai. "Oh. Well let's cool her down. That's the first thing to do." Ai places the cool clothe onto Kagome's forehead.

"She's never been this sick before." Sango observes Kagome's condition. Ai keeps her eyes focus on Kagome's figure. "Has Kagome been anywhere that she might not know of?" She asks wondering. "No, we've been to our usual areas. None of them where anything out of the ordinary. None of the people were sick as we speak." Sango replies as she tries so hard to think back to think if there was anything might have caused Kagome to be this sick. But then Ai came up with something else. And that look on her face is not good. "I know one thing." She speaks up. "And I'm afraid I might not like you. And neither will you or my daughter


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Sango blinks her eyes. "What is it? What does Kagome have?" Ai stands back up. "Before my husband and I came after hearing about Kagome's divorce, he had the flu for a few days. He might've gotten better from it but little did we know that Kagome got it from after he embraced her after hearing the divorce." Ai explains to her. Sango turns to Kagome. "Really? I had no idea that Mr. Higurashi was down with the flu. He's ok right?" She asks the mother.

Ai goes into the kitchen to make the drink that she knows to bring down Kagome's fever. "Yes. He's fine. Ever since we came home, the first thing he wanted to do is find Koga. But Koga's father is my husband's boss. So it's not to be nice to inform his boss about what his son did. And I'm not too sure if it'll end well on our end." She tells Sango as she stirs the drink in a big mug.

"And why would you say that, Mrs. Higurashi?" Sango asks as the mother enters Kagome's bedroom. A groan makes the two women turn to the source. "Mom?" Kagome speaks weakly. Ai sits down on the side of Kagome's bed. "What are you doing here?" Ai places her hand on Kagome's cheek. "You told me that you were sick. I'm here. And so is Sango." She answers gently to her daughter. "What happened to me?" Kagome asks as she tries to sit up. "We came in and we found you on the floor." Sango answers the question this time.

"I…did?" Kagome is exhausted still. Not really getting her head straight. "Here, dear." Ai hands over the drink she made in the kitchen. Kagome gladly drinks the mug. "Thanks mom." She smiles after taking a few sips of the drink. "Is there anything else you need?" Ai asks her. Kagome turns to the one part of her room. "There's one." She smiles back at her. She then turns her sight to her backpack. "Really, Kagome? You want me to do your project?" Sango is disbelief about the task in hand. "Please, Sango. I managed to find my person, all you have to do is find more about that person." Kagome begs with the puppy dog eyes. All Sango could do is groans. "Ok, but you owe me one in return when you get better." She grabs Kagome's backpack and leaves the apartment

Sango arrives at the campus after what Kagome asks her mother, and her herself. "For all the things she wants me to do." She parks her car and looks at her backpack as well as Kagome's backpack. "No wonder she was desperate about this." She shakes her head and takes Kagome's backpack out of the car as well as her own. She walks to the café where she and Kagome would go before they head to class. "Hey there, Sango." Miroku greets her as she enters the café. "Oh hi, Miroku." Sango comes up to the booth and sits across from him. "Why do you have Kagome's backpack with you?"

Sango sits downs with the two backpacks by her side on the seat. "She's down with the flu. She wants me to do part of her assignment that we were to write down about someone who went through a hard time and how they need to see the light to make their life a bit more easier for them to live through." She explains the assignment with him.

Inuyasha comes into the café and spots Miroku and the girl he met with at the apartment that he followed Kagome to. "Hey there, Inuyasha." Miroku greets him. Sango turns to see him. "Oh hi." She greets nicely to him. Inuyasha pulls in as Miroku scoots over to let him sit. "Where's the girl?" He asks. He seems to forget about the girl's name. "The girl you met was Kagome. And she's down with the flu. She asks me to do some of her assignment for our class." Sango frowns due to Inuyasha's ignorance of the girl's name.

"Oh. I just hope she gets well soon. Did the professor tell you when the assignment was due?" Miroku asks her after taking a sip of his coffee. "To be honest. I have no idea. I'll have to ask when I get there." Sango holds her chin. "So what kind of a assignment is it that you and Kagome have to do?" Inuyasha asks her curiously. "It's just about a person's life, from the bad times and how they have to find the light. Basically, it's psychological project." Sango answers the question.

"I haven't started on my project. Kagome came up with a few ideas, but she wants me to find more details about the person she's writing her report on. Not just that, she doesn't feel comfortable about presenting the project, so she asks the professor if he could grade right then and there because she wants to respect the person's privacy." Sango tells to the boys.

"Well that's the right thing to do. Not to mention, the thought of presenting a person's problem is not to be misunderstood. Rumors, reputations, and other so-called secrets are not to be spread." Miroku comments to Sango. "Anyway, how did Kagome get the flu? No one around here were sick with it." Inuyasha asks as he grabs himself to drink from the concession stand. "Her father had it. He got better by the time he and Mrs. Higurashi went to Kagome's apartment to comfort her after the divorce." Sango tells him.

"Divorced? She was married?" Inuyasha is shocked to hear that part. Sango shakes her head for how dense this guy really is. "Inuyasha you dope, you were there when I sent that douchebag out. That was Kagome's ex-husband or have you forgotten about that?" Inuyasha groans "No." He admits to her. "Her marriage wasn't good one bit." Sango shadows her eyes. "Why is that, Sango?" Inuyasha asks her curious. Sango looks outside to see the clouds begin to darken. "She was in an arranged marriage…"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Inuyasha is beyond shocked about what Sango told him. 'An Arranged marriage shouldn't exist.' He thought to himself. He's on his way to his place. After getting inside, he flicks the light switch to see how it looks right now and how it was when Kikyo was with him when they were married.

_Flashback _

_Inuyasha goes into the house. "I'm home." He calls out to Kikyo. "Welcome home, Inuyasha." She walks up to him with a smile on her face. "How was work?" She asks him as she begins to make something for him to drink. "Same old. Nothing new." Inuyasha replies back as Kikyo hands him a glass of water. "DO you find your job boring?" She asks him as she sits down next to him on the couch._

_ "There are times it can be boring, I just have to keep up with the schedule of the business." Inuyasha replies as he wraps his arm around Kikyo's shoulder. "But tomorrow, I'm supposed to get a new boss." He tells her before taking a drink of his water. "Got any idea who it is?" Kikyo rests her head onto his shoulder. "I don't have the slightest idea." He shakes his head. Kikyo frowns a little but is optimistic about it though. "Let's just make sure your new boss will help out with the business." She encourages him. Inuyasha places the glass down onto a coaster by the side table. "I hope so too." He kisses her._

_End of Flashback_

Inuyasha is sitting in the exact same spot of the couch when he was talking with Kikyo. But that was about a year ago. Their home had top of the line furniture, the finest artworks, and family heirlooms from Kikyo's side of the family. Ever since her death Inuyasha thought it was best to give Kikyo's belongings to her sister Kaede. He only wanted the couch that he and Kikyo bought together. So far the couch, the bed and the office furniture is all he has left from that. Seeing how empty it is in here is a sad one. Even with the flat screen tv isn't helping him out of his depression that he secretly hides from everyone else. He just couldn't do that.

Just when Inuyasha is about to go take a nap the phone dings to get his attention. He opens up the phone to see that it's a text from Sango. 'I need you to come to Kagome's apartment.' The text reads to him. After a few tapping from his clawed fingers, 'Why? She doesn't know me.' He texted her back. He goes into the bathroom to do his business until the phone dings again. 'Just get your ass here pronto.' Sango's text ended with a sneer look. "Looks like she's not fooling around." He comments the text. 'On my way.' He texts back before getting into his car to go to Kagome's apartment.

Back at the apartment, Ai clothes a cool clothe onto Kagome's forehead. "How is she?" Sango asks the mother. Ai turns around. "She's getting there, but not out of the woods yet. My Husband had something like this about two weeks ago. Before then we had a flu shots." She answers the question as she takes the bowl and the medicine that made Kagome sleep like the dead. The doorbell rings. "I wonder who that could be?" Ai wonders as she goes up to the speaker and presses the button. "Who is it?" She asks the visitor. "I'm Inuyasha. Sango's friend." Inuyasha spoke through the speaker. Ai turns around with a confused look. Sango comes to the speaker. "Don't worry he's a good friend. He just doesn't get out much." Sango waves her hand to calm the mother down. "Ok, you're here." She speaks into the microphone and pushes the button to unlock the main door of the building.

Ai is still unsure about this guy. "Who is this Inuyasha?" She asks Sango. "Inuyasha is a friend of my boyfriend Miroku. Unfortunately he lost his wife a week ago to cancer. Me and Miroku have been trying our best to get his through this but nothing has changed. Well except when he came here by accident." She explains the man's life.

"Oh I had no idea he's widowed. His wife must've been so nice." Ai gasps before that. "Yeah Kikyo was a great person, She liked anyone who shows respect to Inuyasha." Sango tells her. The door opens up to reveal Inuyasha. "Ah you're here." Sango smiles brightly to let him inside. "What's going on here, Sango?" Inuyasha whispers to her, not really no liking where this is going. "I told you that Kagome's sick." She replies. Inuyasha shows an annoyed looked, "You never told me that over the text message. What are you trying to pull here Sango?"

Ai can see how hesitant this Inuyasha guy is. She observes quietly to see how this fall into place. "I thought that if you came, you'd get Kagome better quicker that way." Sango explains the reason for his visit. All he does is cross his arms. "Look Sango. With all do in respect, I'm still trying to get over what happened to my wife. Do you honestly think that having me here would do me any good?"

Sango is taken aback at that comment. "Inuyasha I'm aware about your wife's death. But you should know better that she's in your heart, no matter what. When you first came here, you had no idea who Kagome was because you felt you just had to be here. You manage to prevent her ex husband from getting to her when she got home, and I managed to get him out." She reminds him about what happened.

A loud noise of coughing gets Ai attention. She goes into the bedroom where Kagome is. "How are you feeling, honey?" Ai asks her daughter as she sees Kagome blowing her noise pretty hard to get the mucus out of her head. "Not good." Kagome replies in a hoarse voice. Ai places her hand onto Kagome's forehead. "Still warm. Is the cold medicine working?" She asks as she saw the bottom has been half way gone. "It's trying it's best to get this out of me." Kagome moans as she lies back onto her bed.

Sango sees Inuyasha peeking into the bedroom through the gap of the open door. He can see Kagome with an ice pack on her head to get her fever down. Shockingly enough, she resembles Kikyo. 'Kikyo…' He murmurs silently. Just seeing her reminds him about those times when Kikyo was in the hospital with iv wires and other medical machines doing their best to keep her alive. But Inuyasha knew. He knew that it wouldn't last. About a day later, the beeping monitor went flat signaling that the patient has passed away.

"Hey, Mom look…" Kagome's voice gets him out of his trance of the memory. Ai turns around to see Inuyasha just looking in. "Have you come to check up on me?" Kagome asks him. Inuyasha blinks his eyes a few times. "I was informed by Sango that you were sick. So Yeah." He rubs the back of his head because he doesn't have the slightest on how to do this.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Ai goes out of Kagome's bedroom to give Inuyasha and Kagome a private moment. After closing the door quietly, she turns to see Sango on her cell phone doing something on it. "How's it going?" Sango asks the mother. Ai shows a look of concern, "Sango, I'm not sure if I can leave that guy in Kagome's room. Just the two of them." Sango can tell that Ai isn't liking this one bit. If she were to know any better. It's usually the father who would be overprotective of his daughter. But it's Kagome's mother's who's being that. "Mrs. Higurashi, I can assure you that you have nothing to worry about." Sango tries to get her to relax from this.

In the bedroom, Kagome and Inuyasha are not saying anything because neither of them can come up with anything to say. Inuyasha just looks around her bedroom, from the nice color of crème coat of the walls to the fine desk and dresser. "You have a nice room here." He spoke his compliment. Kagome nods. "Thanks, but it's nothing like my own back home." She replies with a blush. "Oh this is just for school?" Inuyasha turns to her. Kagome nods with sad frown.

"It was the only way to get away from my ex." She tells him. "You mean that douchebag who came here the other day?" He did not see this coming. "Yeah, but he was here before I got here. He's supposed to be on a restraining order as we speak." Kagome explains to him. "How come you two divorced?" Inuyasha asks her. At that moment, Kagome shakes violently. "Kagome!" Inuyasha goes to her to calm her down. "It's just too painful." She able to tell him as she begins to wrap herself. The door opens up quickly to show Ai with a angry look. "What did you do to her?" She was able to hold her anger.

"Listen to me. I just asked her a question." Inuyasha waves his hands to defend himself from the mother's wrath. "And what question was it?" Ai crossed her arms. "All I asked is why did Kagome divorced Koga." He spoke, until the girl shakes again. That's when Ai comes to her daughter and hugs her. "Out." She orders Inuyasha to leave. Inuyasha follows her order and leaves the room.

Sango sees him coming into the kitchen. "Hey what happened?" She asks him. "I asked Kagome why she divorced Koga?" That's when Sango slaps him across the face. "You idiot. You weren't supposed to ask her that. Just asking is going to have her be very unstable for what she went through to make she divorced that jerk."

Inuyasha didn't see this coming. "I had no idea. The lease you could've done is to let me know not to ask her that." He comes back to his senses when the slapped face wore off. The door opening gets their attention. "Inuyasha don't you dare ever ask my daughter that question." She tells him with her arms crossed again. "I wasn't aware of it. I had no idea." Inuyasha defends himself. Then Ai takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have done that to you. My daughter means everything to me." She tells him.

Inuyasha nods. "I take it that it was a traumatizing point in her life." He honestly tells them. Sango turns to Ai. "What should we do? Kagome swore not to tell anyone else about it." Ai knows exactly what she's talking about. "We wait until Kagome is well. That's our first priority." Ai suggests to her. "When the time is right." Sango agrees with her. "Inuyasha, when Kagome really feels she can trust you, she'll tell you. But for now, she's still recovering from it as we speak. Not because of what she went through, but also this cold." Ai tells the boy. Inuyasha nod. "Ok. I'll head out. Let me know by then." He leaves the apartment.

Sango looks outside the window to see Inuyasha leave the property. "Ai, how long has it been since that incident." She asks as she sits down onto the couch in the living room. Ai follows suit as she sits onto the recliner. "It's been about a month and a half. Ever since, Kagome demanded to divorce him right then and there." Ai answers her. Even she knows what happened. But like she said earlier, she respected Kagome's wishes of not to tell anyone about it whatsoever. And for that she has to keep that promise.

Inuyasha returns to his apartment. As he turns on the light, he catches Miroku going through the fridge. "Don't you have a place of your own?" He asks him as he puts the keys onto the key hook on the wall. "Yeah, but your place is way sweeter than mine." Miroku replies with a grin. Inuyasha shakes his head as he pulls him out of the fridge. "Hey I wanted to get a drink." Miroku cries out. "Ha ha. Nice one Miroku. But I don't put any alcohol in this building. And that includes this apartment." Inuyasha knows Miroku's routine whenever he comes over. He has a spare key, he comes in and the first thing that comes into mind is beer. Which is why Inuyasha had to get rid of it in his place. Whenever he went to Miroku's place, there'd be a fridge full of beer cans. Which makes him sick to his stomach. No way he's going to make his place smell like his friend. Not by the slightest. "Besides, you shouldn't even be here." Inuyasha reminds him.

Miroku manages to get out of Inuyasha grasps as he goes to a spot on the couch. "Where did you go anyway? We were supposed to go to your brother's house." Inuyasha sits in a different couch across. "Sango texted me to come over to Kagome's house. And boy was it hard." Inuyasha holds his forehead. Miroku can tell Inuyasha went through a tough time. "If you feel like telling me. I'd respect it." He encourages him. Inuyasha looks up to him. "I was forbidden to ask Kagome why she divorced Koga. Just asking that might've triggered a painful memory. Only her mother knows about it." Inuyasha said to his friend. Miroku knows exactly what he's talking. And such he too was sworn not to tell him what happened to Kagome because Sango knows about it as well.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The next morning Ai woke up from her sleep in the guest bedroom. She would always make sure Kagome has a spare room for her to spend the night if something this were to happen. She quietly walks into the kitchen to make some coffee. As she decides to wait, she goes and checks up on Kagome. She slowly opens the door to see Kagome out cold. She can see the trash can full of discarded tissues. The nightstand has an empty bottle of cold medicine. She comes to her daughter's bed and places her hand onto her forehead. "Mom…" Kagome spoke weakly. "Hey sweetie, I just wanted to make sure you're going to be okay. You're still warm. Is there anything you need?" Ai asks nicely.

Kagome looks up to see that her glass of water is almost empty. "Just more water." She requested. Ai smiles as she takes the glass. "I'll be right back." She leaves the room. Kagome looks at her phone to see that it's Sunday and it's only 7:00 am. Not her time to wake up at this hour. Ai returns to the room with water and few ice cubes to keep it cold for her. "Anything else?" Ai asks her daughter. Kagome shakes her head after taking a gulp of the drink. "No. I'm good." She turns to her other side and goes back to sleep. Ai takes the trashcan and leaves the room.

Ai returns to the kitchen to get her mug of coffee. As soon as she sat down on the sofa to take her time her phone rings. She sees that it's her husband. She presses the answer. "Hello, dear." She greets him on her end. "Hello, Ai. How's Kagome doing?" Hige asks her immediately. "She's not out of the woods yet. She still has a fever." Ai replies back to him. "I see. Has there been anything else going on beside our daughter' illness?" He asks her curiously.

Ai had to be careful about answering that question. There's no way she'd tell him about the guy that came over yesterday to check up on Kagome. No way she's going to tell him. "Not much has happened other than Sango helping me out." Ai tells him over the cell phone. "Ok. I just want to make sure that Kagome is still safe from Koga." Hige tells her serious on that part. After learning the truth about what Koga did to Kagome was too much for her. Not to mention that one question that Inuyasha asked Kagome triggered her a painful memory of what she went through.

"According to Sango, Koga got here before Kagome got back from school." Ai said to him at risk. "Kagome's ex husband? How was it he managed to get here?" Hige asks as calmly as possible. AI sighs. "Sango went behind Kagome's back to tell me about the incident. However a guy arrived after Kagome and confronted him." Ai begins the story. Hige begins to fill up with mixed feelings about the topic. First is anger because of what Kagome told him about what happened. Next is protectiveness. True he's not around to make sure Kagome was unharmed but then comes in a new guy who confronted Koga. That got him curious. "But why would that guy confront Koga?" Hige asks his wife. Ai places the mug down onto the coffee table. "From what Sango told me was that Kagome resembled a person that the guy once knew." Ai answers to him.

"Ok, Ai. I just want to make sure that Kagome isn't getting into any kind of trouble. We don't know about this new guy who confronted Koga." Hige speaks to her sternly in a calm way. "He did so, and then Sango arrived to finished the task and warns Koga to stay away from Kagome because he's on a restraining order. So far he violated it within the first twenty-four hours of the court's case." Ai gives the information about the charge. That surprised him.

"A restraining order? Kagome didn't mention any of that to us when she came home." Hige spoke in disbelief. "I believe that Kagome wasn't ready to tell us because she's still recovering from the ordeal she went through. I know for sure Sango would tell me because Kagome is too embarrassed to tell us anything." Ai tells him over the phone. "So then where's Sango?" Hige asks her.

Ai didn't see this coming. "I believe she's at work. Kagome is dead asleep. Maybe you should come over. I bet she'd be glad that you came." She suggests to him. "Ok, I'll swing by noon. Let's just hope Kagome is well enough to talk. I really want to get to the bottom of this without scaring her." He agrees. "Okay, dear. I'll let you in when you arrive." Ai smiles as she then hangs up the phone. But then something else crossed her mind. 'What will Kagome do when she finds out that I wanted Hige to come over? Oh, I just hope it goes smoothly." She sits back on the couch.

By noon, Ai is still reading her book that she brought with her when she arrived to take care of Kagome. Her phone dings. She picks it up from the end table and sees that Hige is at the parking lot. She gets up and then unlocks the door to go out and let Hige in through the lobby of the apartment. She can see the Hige brought some things with him. "I see you have a few things." Ai comments to him as they come back in. Hige grins, "Nothing is better than using dad's homemade medicine." She raised her own thin eyebrow. "And you think that the medicine I've been using is not meant for our daughter?" She playfully asks him.

Hige places the bag onto the counter. "I didn't say that. I just think that mine could do the trick." He speaks back as he sorts out the ingredients that was inside the bag. Knowing her husband, Ai is aware of Hige's crazy ideas that he got from his dad whenever he was sick. And according to him, the Higurashi medicine is not to be messed with. "Alright let's get going." Hige cracks his knuckles as he remembers every single detail on how to make the medicine. 'Let's just hope he doesn't kill her.' Ai wonders in concern.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The stinky aroma drags itself into Kagome's bedroom. It seeps through the crevices of the door's gap. As it draws closer, the scent hit her nose hard. She groans as she tries to turn to the other side of her bed. But the smell managed to get her fully awake this time. "Uhh. What's that smell?" Kagome covered her nose, hoping she can get rid of it out of her room. "Kagome. How are you feeling?" Ai walks in. "Mom, what's that smell?" Kagome asks her the question instead of answering it. "Oh that's your father making the family medicine." Ai replies calmly. Just hearing that made Kagome go into the bathroom and hurl into the toilet. "I knew it. Dad had to bring in the big guns." Kagome moans as she gets out of the bathroom. "I know it smells horrible, but it's the only way to get rid of your illness." Ai places her hand onto her daughter's shoulder. "Why didn't he do in the very beginning?" Kagome looks up to her. "You know how your father is. He wants to see if any of the regular medicine we get at the drug store. And if it all fail, he does his own."

Kagome sits back down onto her bed. "Dad would have to the extremes to pull something like anytime we're sick. Why can't he just do the regular routine?" Ai smiles sadly. "Your father doesn't want to let anyone know about his little trick. He thinks that all of his ailments are top of the line." Kagome just nods. Knowing him, Hige always had something that can cure all of illnesses. "Alright, Kagome. Your medicine is ready." Hige comes to the door with a mug in his hand. Kagome can tell right away that the stench is coming from the mug. "Really, dad?" Kagome is suspicious at this.

"Ai told me what's going on. And the first thing we have to do is get you better. Now stop being so stubborn and drink." Hige tells her in a gentle seriousness in his voice. Kagome reluctantly takes the mug, plug her nose with her free hand and chugs down the mug. Hige never saw this coming. Normally, he knew that he'd catch her dumping that stuff into the toilet, and she'd lie to him that she drank it all. But he knows better. The first thing about that medicine is that it would leave a horrible smell of breath in the mouth for a few hours. And as such, Kagome didn't have that. "Let me smell your breath." Hige comes to her after he takes the mug. Kagome opens her mouth and exhales out. "Yep. You should be resting a bit more for the medicine to work." As such he leaves the room.

As such, the medicine kicks in its sleepiness to Kagome, which she snuggles back in her bed and goes back to sleep. Hige couldn't help but smile at the scene. He leaves the room and heads into the kitchen. Luckily the stink wore off after being washed by Ai. Even the pot that was used to make it in the first place wasn't that big. Just a medium size pot. "Let me." Ai gestures her hand out so she can wash the mug too. "So tell me Ai." Hige sits at the sofa. Ai dries off her damped hands and joins him. "What is it?" She asks him.

"How much do you know about the man who confronted Koga when he came here?" Hige asks her as calmly as possible. Ai can tell right away that he's getting into his overprotectiveness of their daughter. "I don't know him personally. I told you earlier that Sango told me that Kagome resembled someone he used to know." Ai answers so far. "And what is his name?" Hige asks again after taking in the new information he's getting so far. "I believe his name was Inuyasha." Ai holds her chin, trying to remember the appearances as well.

"And what did he look like?" Hige asks her a few seconds later. Ai still holds her chin. "Well, he's quite tall. A bit taller than Kagome. He has long silver hair down to the bottom of his back. Shocking enough, he had white akita ears instead of human one." Ai gives the details as much as she could. Hige nods. "And what about his personality?" He asks her curious this time. "He's not much of a social person. But he doesn't mind a few people. Maybe one to three is his limit. He's shy at first, but he shows respect to them. He was very nice to me, knowing I'm the mother. But when it came to protecting Kagome, he can be a bit aggressive. Doing everything he can to keep her safe according to Sango." Ai explains to her husband.

Hige would never expect someone like Inuyasha would do something like that. From confronting Koga to checking up on Kagome. 'What was I thinking?' He holds his head. "Is something wrong, dear?" Ai leans forward due to his posture. "Ai, I made a mistake." He tells her. "And what mistake is that?" Hige looks at her. "For me to pick her a husband. She deserves someone better." Ai sighs. "Then why did you do it?" She asks him. Hige shows her ruefully expression. "I lost it in a bet against my boss." That's when Ai stands up. "How could do that to Kagome? She wasn't even old enough to get married. She was 16 when she was forced into it. What were you thinking?" She silently yells at him, not wake up their daughter. Hige knew for sure that he's going into much deeper waters than he thought. He's dead meat. And as such, he has to do the unthinkable. A harsh conversation with his boss.

"Hige when we get home, you are to go to your boss and tell him about what happened. Did you do it?" Ai places her hands on her hips. Judging the look gives her the silent answer. "And that's exactly what you're going to do and I'm going with you." She glares at him. If there is one thing that Hige was warned by her parents is that whenever Ai gets that angry. Let her be that way and let her go with it. And that's what he's going to do when they get home.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

As the evening arrives, Kagome wakes up. She pushes herself up from her bed. "Mom?" She calls out. She comes out of her room to see it completely dark. The entire area is pitch black. It's not her mother to just leave her apartment without telling her. She walks into the kitchen to dim the light on so it wouldn't hurt her eyes since she's still waking up. The kitchen is spotless. Typical for her mother to clean up the place. Kagome then spots the note on her countertop.

_Dear Kagome_

_It was best not to wake you up. So I left you some food in the fridge. Your father and I went back home to take care of a few things. We'll be back tomorrow evening. Hope you get well soon_

_Love mom._

Kagome sighs with a smile. "That's something. I wonder what they had to take care of that was so important to them?" Kagome said to herself as she goes into the fridge to see the Tupperware filled with rice and chicken. She takes it out and reheats the food after putting them into a bowl. Little did she know that topic involves her. For now, she eats in peace.

Back at the Higurashi shrine, Ai is getting her outfit ready for the following morning. She has laid out a nice light blue blouse, and a pair of dress pants along with a black button sweater that goes with the blouse. "Hige, do you have your outfit picked out yet?" Ai calls to her husband. Hige is in the walk-in closet browsing tirelessly, trying to pick the right outfit. "Hige honey, I thought men had the easiest decisions to pick on what to wear." Ai comments to him as she peaks in. Hige shows her an annoyed glare. Ha ha Ai. That may be true, but that's just a myth." He replies back as he continues on searching the closet racks.

Ai frowns a little but stays positive. She looks through the racks. Seeing that each blouse iron and cleaned and hung up, with slacks in the same way. She sees the ties in a rack. Along with dress shoes at the bottom of the floor. Instinctively She pulls out a blue blouse with a navy-blue tie and a pair of brown slacks. "How about this?" She holds it up to him. All Hige could is nods, "You should pick my outfits from now on." He grins as he takes the set out with him. "That's what I just did." Ai crossed her arms.

The next morning, Hige and Ai drive to the workplace where Hige goes to work. "He should be in his office." Hige said as they enter the building. "He better." Ai said to him seriously. "Ah Mr. and Mrs. Higurashi. Good Morning." The one worker greets them. Hige sees that it was his boss's secretary. "Morning, Sakura. Do you know if Mr. Hirako is in?" Hige greets her back politely. Sakura looks down to the planner on the desk. "Yes he's on his break for the next ten minutes. Don't mind waiting?" She tells them. "That's fine. We can wait." Ai smiles to her as they turn around to take a seat in the lobby.

About ten minutes later, the elevator dings to let the riders to get out. Out comes a man in his middle 40's. Nicely dressed in business attire of suit and tie. "We'll continue on with our project." He tells the other man who came out with him. "Most definitely. How's your son?" The other guy asks him. "He's doing fine with his wife." The first one replies with a smile. A devious smile. "Well let's make sure that they are married for a long time." The other one said to him. "Most definitely." The first one keeps the act up. "Ok, see you tomorrow." The other guy said as he waves good bye and leaves the building.

When the door close, the man's face changes big time, to a scowled look. "Mr. Hirako." Hige calls out to him. Mr. Hirako turns to see Hige and his wife Ai with him. "Hige. You don't come to work on the weekends? What brings you two here?" He greets them. "It's a more personal meeting. I hope we have enough time to discuss about it." Hige said to him in a whisper. Mr. Hirako guides them to the elevator and takes them to the floor where his office is located. "So then what brings you two here in the first place?" Mr. Hirako asks them as they sit on the luxurious couches that are sitting from across each other.

"I'm just curious rather or not Koga told you what happened." Hige asks his boss. Mr. Hirako nods. "Yes, I got the call from my son three days ago. From what he told me was that he and Kagome are divorced. Why is that?" He asks them. Hige and Ai looked at each other, hoping one of them would have the better answer. "There've been reports of abuse, attempt rap and assault." Ai speaks out as she pulls out a few documents of claims that Kagome showed them earlier. Mr. Hirako takes the documents and reads them thoroughly. "Oh. I had no idea my son would do something like this." He is shocked to see this.

"You had no idea that Koga would express violence?" Ai asks him. "I know from time to time that Koga would through a temper, but I never expected this to go this far. I had no idea." Mr. Hirako replies honestly to the parents. "Is Kagome okay though?" He decides to change the topic to focus on girl. "She's fine as we speak. All they could do is a restraining order. Koga already violated the prohibition within the next few hours after it was made official by the judge." Ai explains to him. Mr. Hirako isn't surprised by that kind of punishment. "So Koga violated the deal. I'll take this into consideration to handle this situation on my behalf." Mr. Hirako gives the documents back to the parents. "You have my word." He swears to them. Mr. and Mrs. Higurashi shake his hand and leave the office via through the route Mr. Hirako lead them to.

As soon as Mr. And Mrs. Higurashi leave the scene, Mr. Hirako glares at his reflection in the window. "I should've known better. Koga is going to be in serious trouble." And that there he doesn't like it when things don't go _his _way instead of his son's way.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

An hour later, Mr. Hirako's phone beeps. "Yes?" He spoke after he pressed the button that was lit. "Your son is here." The secretary tells him on the other end. "Good, bring him up here." He responds back. The door opens up a few minutes later. "You wanted to see me, father?" Koga asks as he comes in and closes the door behind him. "Yes. I've been curious as to what's been happening between you and Kagome?" Mr. Hirako asks his son as he laced his fingers as well as setting the elbows on the desk. "What's there to talk about? Me and Kagome are doing just fine." Koga fibs as he sits on the couch that's in front of the desk.

Mr. Hirako pulls out a draw to bring out some paperwork. "Apparently, there've been reports about rap, abuse, and assault." He speaks casually as he hands over the documents. Koga blinks his eyes. "What's going on here? I didn't do any of this." Koga said back as he reads the pages. "I swear." He practically said a bit more.

"If that's the case, then why are you two divorced?" Mr. Hirako resumes his posture on the desk. "Who told you about that? I didn't say anything about that." Koga is now confused. He usually keeps his business to himself. He didn't want his father to know about anything unless he wanted to. "I've had visitors today. They were Kagome's parents. She told them about what you two did. And I'm very disappointed in you." Mr. Hirako glares at him this time. Koga is still confused. "What? I wasn't even at the courtroom to do such a thing. There maybe an imposter behind all of this." He tightens his hands. "If you said you weren't at court then where were you at the time?" Mr. Hirako asks him curiously.

"I was at class. I was in the middle of an exam." Koga tells him, as he pulls out his agenda when he writes down upcoming events. Mr. Hirako turns to the page of the week where his exam was dated. Shockingly enough, no such day had a court day on it. "So you were in the middle of your exam at college and you weren't aware of this court case." Hirako is now suspicious about his son's schedule. 'I'll have to be certain if he's really telling me the truth.' He sighs. "Ok. I'll take that into consideration about this. You may leave." He tells his son as he turns his chair around to look outside to see the outside. After hearing the door closed, Hirako narrows. "Whoever it is, he won't be easy to find." He said to himself.

Without turning back to the desk, he presses the button on the telephone. "Yes, sir." His secretary asks to him. "Could you send one of your friends to keep an eye on my son." He simply asks her. "Of course. Who do you want me to send?" The secretary responds optimistically. Thinking for a few seconds. "I want you to send your son, Kohaku." He tells her. "Got it." The secretary agrees with him.

At a regular a teenage boy named Kohaku is working on his homework. The cell phone by his backpack dings. He picks it up to see that it's a text message from his mother. Soon enough the phone rings to him. "Hello, mom." He smiles to his mother. "Hey there sweetie. What are you doing?" She asks him. The boy looks down on the table. "Just working on my homework. What's up?" He replies back to her. "Anything else after that?" She asks him. "Nothing in particular." He speaks back. "Do you still like to sneak around certain people?" She asks him the topic he loves to hear. "Most definitely." He smiles. "I need you to follow a person of interest." She starts off. The boy nods as he writes down the details of the person. "I'll send you a picture of him. Do whatever you can to keep a close eye on him." She then hangs up.

The next morning the boy goes to an apartment complex. He parks the car in the guest parking lot. He dials someone's number. After a few rings it gets answered. "Good morning, Kohaku. What's going on?" A woman speaks happily. "I'm outside of the apartment, could you let me in?" Kohaku said to her in the same way. "I'll be happy to let you in." Sango replies as she hangs up. Kohaku comes out of his car and waits in the lobby. Sango walks down the hall. As she turns the corner she can see that Kohaku has grown from the last year she knew him. From back then Kohaku was getting into from the body shape, his black hair growth and his voice that was high back as a kid. But like any other boy who reaches their teenage years, they go through the puberty, deepen their voice until it's too late. "Ah Sango." Kohaku waves his hand to her. Sango smiles as she runs to him. "It's good to see you sister." Kohaku hugs here. Sango hugs her back.

"So what brings you here? Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Sango asks after she lets him into her apartment. "I'm on break for the week. Mom wanted me to spend the time with you. I hope you don't mind." Kohaku turns to her. "Oh ok. But I know this isn't just having a quality time between brother and sister." Sango smiles as she makes some tea for him. "Yeah. Mom wants me to keep an eye on someone." Kohaku said to her as he sits on the sofa with his backpack on his lap. "Really and who is it?" Sango asks him curiously as she set the tray onto the coffee table in front of the sofa. "Mom wants me to spy on Koga." Kohaku spoke a few seconds later.

Sango just clutches her fists. "She wants you to follow the man who hurt Kagome." She asks him calmly to hold in on her anger for what she saw earlier. "That's what she told me over the phone." Kohaku digs into his backpack to pull out a miniature camera. "And that's exactly how I'll keep an eye on him. That is if you can help me out." Kohaku smirks at her. He knows how curious Sango is. And from just showing her the camera he pulled out has intrigued her. "When do you see him?" He asks her as he plays with the camera. "In the next two hours." Sango takes the camera and puts it in her tote bag. "I'll make sure he suffers. He's done for." Sango smirks back. 'This is getting easier by the day.' Kohaku just couldn't help but smirk even more.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Later that day, Sango has to get to class, and she knows where Koga's class is. But to make sure she doesn't get caught by him, she has to be very stealthy. As she enters the building, she sees him talking with some of his friends. She has no idea what they're talking about. She picks up the little camera she got from her younger brother. As she casually walks behind him she flicks her fingers at a precise spot. His backpack. Even better into the hidden pocket inside of the item. She enters the restroom, and sends the text message to Kohaku to let him know that she completed her part.

Back at Sango's apartment, Kohaku opens up his laptop to make sure that the camera is working. He made sure that camera is fully charged for a few days. That's more than enough to get the information that is needed to confirm rather or not he's been lying or telling the truth the entire time. He puts on the headphones and turns on the camera as well as the little microphone that was installed into it.

A few minutes later, Koga steps into his classroom to resume his studies. None of the others knows evactly what he wants to be when he graduates. It's a mystery that will take time to solve. "Hey there, Koga." One of Koga's friends sits next. "Hey there Hakkaku." Koga greets back. Hakkaku has a spiked hair do. He's dress in loose jeans, a black t-shirt and a pair of sneakers. "What brings you here? You're not in this class." Koga states as he leans back in his seat. Hakkaku looks at him. "Something has happened." He bluntly tells. "Koga, you know you can tell me anything. I promise not to tell anyone else." Hakkaku places his hand onto Koga's shoulder to calm him down. "I'll tell you when I'm done here." Koga looks to him with a casual smile. Hakkaku agrees and leaves the classroom before the professor finds a student that didn't sign up for this. Little did Koga knows, he's going to reveal something that someone else will get.

About an hour later, Koga grabs his backpack and leaves the classroom. He knows where he likes to go to. The lounge. He knows perfectly well that it's empty at this time of the day. He texts Hakkaku where to meet him. A ding tells him that Hakkaku will be there shortly. Koga arrives at the lounge and sits on a sofa. He sets the backpack onto the table. Hakkaku comes in shortly after. "What's on your mind, Koga?" He asks as he sits on the sofa across from him.

"I was with my father yesterday." Koga begins. Hakkaku was told a few years ago that his father ran a business in the city. But they hardly see each other that often. "That's something. Why did he wanted to see you?" Hakkaku sits back onto the back of the sofa. "My father is accusing me that I did some horrible things to Kagome." Koga tells him right off the bat. Hakkaku is now confused Never in his life was he told that Koga would do such a thing to Koga. Sure he was aware about their marriage. But the new information isn't something anyone's friend should hear. "My father met Kagome's parents earlier that day, telling him that me and Kagome are divorced. I wasn't told anything about this. I was here taking my exam." Koga tells his friend.

Hakkaku holds his chin in a thinking manner. "Maybe someone is imposing you without knowing it." Koga can tell that he has a point. It's true that he was out of town for a few years for different reasons. He wasn't even around with Kagome for the last years they were married. "That could be. But we have no clue on who it is that's been imposing me. We're at a dead end. No leads of signs." He comments back.

Back at the apartment Kohaku eavesdrops on the entire conversation. 'How could he be out of town for so long, unaware about Kagome being a victim. I have to figure this out.' Kohaku thinks to himself. He made sure he recorded the video and sound.

"And to make things worse, Sango said that you went to Kagome's apartment despite being on a restraining order from the judge." Hakkaku tells Koga for what else he's been missing all this time. "My old man showed me the reports from the court. If that's something to make sure I'm innocent, we would have a lie detector. A polygraph. It's the only way to set things straight." He tells his friend. "If so where would you find one?" Hakkaku asks him curiously. "I bet my father would know someone who does such a thing. I better give him a call." Koga answers as he picks up his cell phone from his jacket pocket.

After a few rings, the person on the other line speaks. "Hirako speaking." Hirako tells to the other person. "Dad. It's me." Koga tells him immediately. "Koga what a surprise. I would never expect you to call me at my office." Hirako speaks normally. "It's important. Do you have a free time?" Koga asks him. "In about an hour, why?" Hirako speaks back. "This may sound crazy. But do you know someone who does a lie detector test?" Kagome asks him anxiously. It took Hirako a few seconds. "I have my friend in the next town over. Is it because of what happened yesterday?" He asks his son. "Dad, I know for that I'm innocent. And I can prove it to you with that." Koga tells his father confidently. "I'll meet you over there. I'll send you the address." Hirako hangs up.

Koga waits for the text for the address on where he is supposed to meet his father. "So he knows someone in particular?" Hakkaku stands after him. "Yeah he's a lawyer. And to make sure he convinces judges, he has done a technique to prove. Come on." He leads him out of the building and straight to his car. Little did they know that someone was spying on them the entire time.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Sango comes into the apartment to see Kohaku still on his laptop. "Any progress?" She asks him as she sits next to him. Kohaku turns to her. "There's more than that. He's going to see a lie detector to prove he's innocent." He explains the situation. Sango nods, "I see. And there might be more to it." She agrees with him. "Like what?" Kohaku asks her curiously. "Well the last time I saw Koga at Kagome's apartment, he was driving a blue car. But the car he drove away in was a black car. Not to mention it was a different brand as well." Sango tells him what she found out so far.

"Maybe he had two cars." Kohaku takes a guess. "No. Whenever someone goes to college, it's recommended that they had one car no matter what. Rather it's old, new, good or bad condition. Any of the opposites, whatever the car is. Even in the registration proves it." Sango narrows her eyes to prove that she's telling the truth. Kokaku nods. "Ok. I bet it's difficult to get into the college database to make sure that it's true." He jokes to her. Sango turns to him. "Can you do it?" She grabs hold of his shoulders. "What about you? You have an account on the college website. Should it be easy to access his account?" Kohaku asks her. Sango sighs as she takes out her tablet to log into her college account. "As you can see Kohaku, I'd be informed of upcoming exams and homework assignments. And that's all I know so far." Sango shows him the screen.

"So in order to sign in you type in is your first initial and last name?" Kohaku said to her. Sango just nods. "Yeah. Every student is to sign in that way." She confirms it. "Ok. Well for what we know is your sign in is like that. But what about the password?" Kohaku is getting something here. "Yeah, every student's password is their birthday by number and the last digits of their social security." She tells him. But then slaps her forehead. "Ok I know his full name and birthday but I have no idea what the last four digits of his social security are." Kohaku nods. "Well do you have to provide what you owe to let the college know?" He asks her.

Sango nods. "Yeah. My information of my day of birth, to my living address, and car ownership. We even have stickers to prove it." Sango tells him so far. "Okay. So we just need to see if the car that you saw Koga drove was the same one in his info." Kohaku tells her. "We can't be too hasty. Signing into the college database is risky. I'd be expelled. They track down the hackers without them knowing." She gives a good point. It's too risky at this point. For now they have to think of something else to get a hold of Koga's social security.

Koga arrives at the location that his father sent the address to. So far they're in a plaza shopping center. Many small shops, some opened, some closed. But the place they're looking at is closed. "This has to be some joke." Hakkaku comments the sign. "Yeah. So much for this." Koga comes out of the car. All of sudden the door of the closed store opens. "Koga." Hirako greets him. "Dad." Koga nonchalantly greets him. "I see you have Hakkaku with you. How are you doing?" Hirako greets his son's friend. "I'm good." Hakkaku bows to him. "Ok let's go in." Hirako leads them into the shop.

Inside there's an office, and a few rooms behind it. Hirako takes them to a room. He silently knocks on the door. The door opens reveal a man in a suit. "Ah Hirako. I assume your son has arrived." He smiles to him. Hirako smiles. "I have Elder." The door opens more to let the others in. Koga, Hakkaku, this is my good friend Elder Memo. But call him Elder." Hirako introduces his son and friend. Koga and Hakkaku bows. "It's an honor to meet you." They both said simultaneously. "Ok let's get started." Elder smiles as he hooks Koga to the lie detector with the wires around his fingers, and chest.

Back at Sango's Apartment, Kohaku grins with excitement. "This is just too good." He squeals. Never had he ever expected that Koga brought his backpack with him into the room where the lie detector test is taking place. Not just that, the camera lens is aiming that the chart where the lines of various responds to his body will prove it. All Sango could do is shake her head. She knows how excited Kohaku can be with situations like this to happen. But that's just it. As such she watches the scene quietly with him.

Koga takes a few deep breathes. He might know what questions are going to be through at him. And if that were to happen, he'd be confident to answer them truthfully. "Ok Koga. You ready?" The Elder asks him. Koga nods. "Ready as I'll ever be."

"Is your name Koga Hirako?" The Elder asks him.

"Yes." Koga answers, the lines stay straight, showing only the truth.

"Do you still believe that you're still married to Kagome Higurashi?" The Elder asks the next question.

"Yes." The Lines remain still. Truth be told.

"Were you away from her for three years?" The Elder asks him.

"Yes." Koga speaks back. The Elder and Hirako look closely to the chart. The lines are straight.

"Have you ever assaulted Kagome?" Hirako asks the question this time.

"No." Koga replies. The lines didn't move.

The device turns off. "Koga. You're free to go." The Elder tells him. Koga nods. "Thank you. Is there anything you want me to do?" He asks the adults as he picks up his backpack, not knowing that the camera lens slips back inside. "Maybe tell Kagome that this is a big misunderstanding." The Elder advices the boy.

"I don't know if that's a good idea. From what I can gather, Kagome doesn't want me near her. That is what the order from the court says." He turns his sight to them. "I see. Maybe when the order is lifted you can explain it to her." Hirako tells him. Koga nods and leaves the room with Hakkaku behind him.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Kohaku puts down his headphones. "What are we going to do?" He asks Sango. Sango on the other hand is having second thoughts. For what they found out wasn't the guy she warned. "Maybe if we can find that guy, we can get him to expose himself." Kohaku comes up with one idea. "No. That won't make a difference. You have no clue how traumatized Kagome was when she was at court to be officially divorced from Koga. Even when Kagome got home from class, Koga's car was there. She spotted the vehicle when she pulled into her parking spot." She explains to him.

"But do you think it's best to tell Kagome about the car that Koga was driving at the parking lot. Did she had any idea the one you saw Koga in the one he drove today?" Kohaku asks her eagerly. Sango has to admit that Kohaku has a point. She never told Kagome about the car thing. Not to mention if the car has the college ticket to gain access to the college parking lot. "Why not go over to her place. She has a right to know the truth." Kohaku closes the laptop.

"It's not that easy, Kohaku. Kagome believes what the court decided for her. All she got a restraining order placed on Koga. That's it." Sango disagrees with him. "Then what are going to do? There's an imposter out there. We can't let that person hurt Kagome." Kohaku said to her with worry in his voice. "That's true, but we don't have any leads, hints, clues, any of that to find him." She tells him. But then something crossed her mind.

"Did you figure something out already?" Kohaku catches her eye glitter in something good. "Yeah. And I might know someone who can help out." She stands up and gets her cell phone. After a few rings, "Hello?" A voice speaks to her. "Hey Miroku, what are you doing?" Sango speaks to him. "I'm about to go to class. Why?" Miroku answers to her. "How long is your class?" Sango asks him. "About an hour." Miroku answers to her. "When you're done, I need you to come to my apartment." Sango tells him.

Miroku squinted his eyes, "Are you telling me to come over after class?" He asks her huskily. "None of that kind of stuff you're going to try. I just have something to show you." Sango tells him in a way that she's threatening him. "Ok. I'll head over." Miroku hangs up.

Sango sits the cell back onto the charger. "What was that all about?" Kohaku asks his sister. "Miroku has a friend who is a dog demon. I just hope Miroku could get him to help out." Sango puts in the details. "But does Kagome's apartment have surveillance cameras around the area though? Wouldn't that help us out to find the vehicle? The license plate?" Kohaku gives out a few examples. "Yeah. However only the landlord of the place has full access to them. Even if Kagome asks for the footage, it wouldn't do her any good." Sango continues on with what she knows about Kagome's apartment security system.

Miroku heads out of the classroom. 'Seriously, what does she want? I don't have anything.' He asks himself in his head. He gets out into the college parking lot to get into his car. He starts it up and drives of. About a few minutes later, he pulls up to see one of the visiting parking spots for Sango's area is occupied. He parks into the next one which was empty. He gets out to see that he has never seen the car. "I wonder whose car this is?" He questions. He picks up his cell phone to call Sango. A ring passed by. "Good you're here." She tells him before hanging up.

Miroku comes into the lobby to wait for Sango to let him. The elevator dings to let out the person who was riding it. "Ah you must be Miroku." It was Kohaku. "Oh, you know her?" Miroku asks the boy. "Yep. She's my big sister." Kohaku tells him proudly. No doubt that Miroku can see the resemblances between him and Sango. They have the same skin tone, and the chestnut brown eyes. Along with the same colored hair. "Come with me." Kohaku gestures the guy to follow him.

Miroku and Kohaku enter Sango's apartment. "Finally, you're here." Sango smiles at him. "Why didn't you come down to the lobby to let me in?" Miroku asks her immediately. "Oh come on. I wanted Kohaku to do it. Besides you never got to meet him. So, meet my little brother." She waves it off. "Yeah, we met at the lobby. So what is it that you want to show me so much?" Miroku asks her as he sits on the recliner. "Kohaku would you do the honors?" Sango asks him. Kohaku nods as he turns on the tv which connected to his laptop.

"What is this?" Miroku asks them right away. "Just wait." Sango shushes him as they start to watch the footage. From the car ride to the location where the lie detector test, Miroku is shocked. "Whoa. So you're telling me that Koga is innocent?" He asks her. "That's what we found out so far." Kohaku tells him so far. "But there's one thing that bothers me though." Sango tells him. "And what's that?" Miroku asks her.

"It's the car thing that Koga drove. When Kagome told me that he was at her apartment, I went over and he was driving a blue car. But the one he drove was black. Not to mention they were different models as well." She explains to him. "Maybe he had to borrow one from the renters or his buddy's car, or his parents." Miroku assumes to her. "No. The college clearly stated that one car is allowed per student to be allowed in the college parking lot. Not to mention it also has a sticker to prove. And his did." She tells him.

"Then what do you think I should do about it?" Miroku crosses his arms. "You need to call Inuyasha and have him track down the car that was at Kagome's parking lot the other day." Sango suggests to him seriously. "Sango. That's not going to work. According to Inuyasha, he can only track down the item that's only a day old. And that car was there two days. He won't be able to get a trail." He explains to her.

"I knew you'd say that. There's one other option left." Sango sighs before speaking again. "And what exactly is it that you want me to do?" Miroku asks her. All Sango does is grin.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Absolutely not, Sango." Miroku immediately speaks back to her what the other option way. "And why not?" Sango crosses her arms. "Sango, do you have any idea what this could do to Kagome?" Miroku stares at her. "I'm completely aware about the consequences if Kagome is to know any of this." Sango tells him back. Miroku knows one crucial fact about Sango. She loves to sneak into things that are none of her business. He's known that ever since he met her. He was informed of this from her father at one point and he took it seriously.

"Look I don't care what happens to me. All I want to do is to prove to Kagome about Koga's innocence." She tries to persuade him. Not working for her unfortunately. "But is that what she wants though? Look Sango. Ever since that court case for her and Koga to be divorced, Kagome is not going to get over it anytime soon. Even she knows about the truth, it's up to her if she wants to believe despite all of that." Miroku reasons to her.

"Miroku, I'm practically begging you to do this for me. I'm pretty sure that Kagome will eventually understand that this is all a big misunderstanding on her part." She grabs a hold of his hand. Miroku feels flattered for Sango to be begging him. She's even giving off those puppy eyes. "No." He stands up and leaves the place. As soon as the door closed, Sango sits back onto her sofa. "Sis, you ok?" Kohaku asks her worriedly. She stands up. "Yeah, I just need to be alone." She goes straight to her room.

Miroku gets into his car, but doesn't leave the parking lot. "Really Sango?" He shakes his head. "I'm going to regret this." He pulls out his cell phone. A few rings pass by. "Hello?" Inuyasha's voice speaks to him. "Inuyasha, what are you up to today?" Miroku asks him. "I've more papers to finish up. But afterwards I'm free. What's up?" He answers to him. "I was at Sango's and she wants me to get a hold of you." He gets to the point. "Really and why doesn't she just get a hold of me instead?" Inuyasha asks him playfully. "This is serious, Inuyasha. Besides she wanted me to take a look at what her younger brother was able to find out about Koga." Miroku practically shouts over the phone.

"Ok, fine. What did Koga do to Kagome?" Inuyasha leans back on his seat. "Turns out that he's innocent." Miroku tells him immediately. "Really. How amusing Miroku." Inuyasha is still teasing him. "I'm not joking around, Inuyasha. That man is innocent." Miroku keeps saying the same thing. "I'm not convinced." Inuyasha comments to him. Soon enough the door opens up to let an unknown person to come in. "Hey, you got a minute?" It was Kohaku. "I'll call you later." Miroku hangs up. "I just looked out the window and saw that you're still here." Kohaku tells him. "Are you mad at me for what I said to your sister?"

Kohaku shakes his head. "No. I'm aware whenever Sango doesn't get her way, she throws a temper and goes to her room." Miroku nods. "I see. I really didn't mean to hurt her feelings. I'm more of the realistic person. I'm not one to bring her hopes up." He explains his personality. "It's ok. I knew for sure something like this would happen. I've seen it before." Kohaku shakes it off. "Anyway. Here." Kohaku pulls out something out of his jacket pocket. It was a jump drive stick. "Just to show your friend." He explains to him. Miroku happily takes it and puts it in his jacket pocket.

"I was just talking with him. He's not one to convince easily. Even I was to show him the proof, he'd ignore it." Miroku explains Inuyasha's persona. Kohaku nods. "I see. It's hard to convince the most stubborn ones. They just don't want to believe it." He comments. "Exactly. If my friend won't believe it. Who will?" Miroku agrees. "I'll head back to check on Sango. I'll see you later." Kohaku gets out of the car and heads back to the apartment building. Miroku starts the car and drives off.

Inuyasha puts his phone back onto the charger. "What's with him. He didn't really want to bug me when I'm busy with this." He said as he finishes up the pages about Kikyo's records. From the will being shown to her side of the family to the financial settled. The one thing that eased him was the account Kikyo sent to him. True that they had separate accounts, Kikyo wanted to make sure that Inuyasha would save up her money in to the savings account. The door knocks. "Come in." He tells his visitor to enter. "It's me." Miroku comes into. "Are you here to scowl at me for what I said over the phone?" Miroku puts the jump drive onto the desk by the laptop. "No. This is what Sango found about him." He tells him seriously.

"Fine." Inuyasha plugs in the jump drive onto the laptop and open up the files. "That file there." Miroku points to the footage. After watching it, Inuyasha isn't surprised. "And what exactly is it that you want me to do?" He crossed his arms. "I just want you to hack into the Kagome's apartment surveillance system and find the footage when you came out and confronted Koga." Inuyasha sighs. "Miroku, you know better. How much I want to help, but I can't do that. Do you have any idea how much trouble I can get into if I were to do something like that."

"Oh yeah, But still Kagome deserves to know about this." Inuyasha shakes his head. "It's none of my business." He protests back. "It is your business when you got involved in confronting a person." Miroku resorts to him. "No." Inuyasha adamantly tell his friend. Miroku narrows his eyes. "Fine. I see now. You don't want to see another woman to suffer right in front of you again. Suit yourself." He leaves Inuyasha's room. But little did he know that he left the jump drive behind. Maybe a way to chance Inuyasha's mind.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The next day Kagome feels well enough to get back to her project she missed out for being sick. From Sango, to her parents and unexpected Inuyasha, she really did lose track on the project's purpose. Her professor promised to privately see how the project ends up. Her phone dings. Kagome unplugs it from the charger to see what the phone is showing on the screen. 'Hey I'm waiting outside.' Sango's name is above the message. 'Be right down.' Kagome texts back. She grabs her backpack and purse that has her keys to unlock the main door and her apartment door when she returns.

Kagome exits the building, looking onto the visitors' parking spots. Strange, Sango isn't in any of them. "Where is she?" Kagome asks herself as she looks around the area. Soon enough the car Kagome knows that Sango drives pulls in. She smiles as she comes up to the passenger side to get in. "Hey Sango." She greets her friend. But then the vents spits out a gas to knock out Kagome. "How naïve you really are, Kagome." Koga's voice speaks to her. Kagome barely tries to be awake to get out of the car. But the doors lock themselves as the driver puts the car in reverse and drives out of the property.

A few minutes later, a car similar to the one that Kagome got in comes into the parking lot. Out comes Sango. She gets to the lobby to ring Kagome's apartment door. "Hey there Sango." The person in the window greets her. "Oh hi there Hiroto. Is Kagome home?" She asks the individual. Hiroto is the doorman of the apartment building. He looks nice and respectful. He is an okay built man in his 40's. "Yeah she just left a few minutes ago. She told me that she was going to ride with you to school." Hiroto tells her. Sango blinks her eyes. "I didn't tell her that. I was coming over to show her something that I found out." Hiroto is confused. "Really. Let me take a look on the surveillance." Hiroto rolls his chair to log into the computer to open up the application that is connected to the monitors. He rewinds it a few seconds until Kagome gets into the car that looks identical to Sango's. Soon enough he zooms in the image to see gas seeping out of the car. "Oh no. I looks like Kagome is kidnapped by someone."

Just hearing widen Sango's eyes. "Oh no. Can you get a picture of the license plate? We should be about to track it down." She grabs hold of the counter. Hiroto zooms in a bit further. "The car doesn't have one." Hiroto sadly tells her. Sango sighs in disbelief. "I have an idea." She smiles as she picks up her cell phone and dials the one number she knows.

Somewhere else the phone ringing is waking up the sleeping Miroku. "Hello?" He speaks tiredly. "Miroku, Kagome has been kidnapped." Sango shouts on the other line. "What?" Miroku is fully awake by that. "The doorman caught the car that looked like mine and the car didn't had a license plate." Sango replies to him. "I'll be right over." Miroku gets dressed. "And bring Inuyasha!" Sango begs him. Miroku groans. "I knew this was going to bite me in the ass." He hangs up and dials his friend's number.

Inuyasha is drinking his coffee. His phone vibrates. He presses the speaker button since his hands are busy. "What is it now, Miroku?" He asks with no interest of the day other then doing his paperwork. "Kagome has been kidnapped." Miroku tells him seriously. "Then go save her." Inuyasha tells him back. "Like hell. The only option is your sense of smell. The car that kidnapped her just left about 10 minutes ago." Inuyasha seems intrigued. "Could you get the license plate from the car?" Inuyasha asks him. "It didn't have one. Besides it was Sango's idea to have me called you." Miroku explains to him. "Fine. I'll be over." Inuyasha hangs up.

Miroku drives to the apartment parking lot. He sees that Sango is waiting impatiently due to her posture she's in. From crossed arms, to tapping her fingers, to constantly check her phone. "Took you long enough." She sneers at him as he gets out of the car. "Well excuse me for trying to get Inuyasha convinced to help out." He speaks back as he comes up to her. "How long ago was the scene?" He gets to the topic. Sango looks at her phone. "About fifteen minutes ago. Where's Inuyasha?" She asks him. "He should be here any minute." Before Sango could ask more of her annoying questions, a new car pulls in. "That's him." Sango blinks her eyes to see the vehicle that pulled in. "He drives that?" Sango is shocked to such a nice car. "He got that from his deceased wife. So, don't speak a word about it." Miroku warns her. Sango nods back.

Inuyasha hops out what turns out to be an SUV of the higher class car brands. "Where was the spot?" He asks immediately. Sango pointed to the spot where the car that kidnapped Kagome. Inuyasha kneels down to one knee to press his fingers onto the fainted tire marks that were left behind. He brings them close to his nose. Just one sniff is more than enough to confirm his thoughts. "They headed to the northwest. Let's go." He tells them nonchalantly to them. Sango and Miroku hopped into the SUV. Sango got into the back seat. She is stunned for how nice the interior of the vehicle provides. Miroku isn't the same way. It appears he's been in this car before. "I know where to go." Inuyasha starts the car and heads of in that direction.

Kagome comes to but to see she's been blindfold, so she can't see her surroundings. Not just blindfolded, but also chained to whatever is attached her wrists and ankles. "Ah you're awake." Koga's voice speaks out to her. Hearing him is sending shivers to Kagome's spine. All of suddenly the blindfold is pulls off of Kagome's face to let her open her eyes to see. She finds herself on a worn out mattress with the chains to the metal bed posts. She looks back to see that Koga is facing his back to her. "Didn't judge made it clear that you weren't supposed near me?" Kagome angrily speaks to him. "Oh on the contrary Kagome. You see you've been misinformed." Koga's voice speaks to her without turning around. "Misinformed of what? For the cases that you raped, and abused me throughout our marriage. I'm through with that since the divorce." Kagome tries her best to get her hands out. "For Koga you knew and loved wasn't really him at all…" That's when the man turned around to exposed his face to Kagome. All Kagome could do is, "No." She spoke in a murmur.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Oh yes, Kagome." The man spoke back to her sinisterly. "And to be honest with you, you're still naïve as we speak." That made Kagome confused when the man said it. "What do you mean by that, Naraku?" Naraku chuckles. "It's quite easy. You are one of my victims to fall for my manipulations. You see Kagome, I'm a shift shaper." He admits to her. "So you had no idea that I was the one who disguised myself as your ex husband and framed him to make him believe that he's been charged instead of me." Kagome could do is look down in shame. "You weren't aware of his presence because if you didn't know that Koga was away for three years, and he hasn't even realized what you put through."

Inuyasha pulls up to a warehouse. "Are you certain that Kagome's here?" Sango asks Inuyasha as they get out. Even when the air around if stifling, Inuyasha could still pick up Kagome's scent. "I'm certain." He replies as he runs in the directions of the scent. "And there's someone with her too." He adds the part. "Really? Who?" Miroku asks him. "Naraku." He simply tells his friend. That made Miroku to be cautious about him. "Who's Naraku?" Sango asks him. "Let's just Inuyasha has a grudge against him." That was all Miroku could tell Sango. He doesn't think it's right to tell the girl about Inuyasha's background.

"I have to admit that you are scared of Koga. And I had to make sure you stayed scared of him." Kagome doesn't raise her head, still feeling ashamed. "Oh, Kagome. You should know better than that. It should be me that you should be afraid of instead. I bet Koga is feeling conflicted about this." Naraku tils her chin to make her see him.

Somewhere else, Koga comes out of his car with Hakkaku. "Why are we here?" Hakkaku asks him. Koga squint his eyes, "I smell Kagome here. And there's someone here two. But that's not just them." He tells his friend as they walk around the property. "Who else is here?" I know one of them, but there's two more that I don't. Come on." He leads his friend in the direction.

Soon enough Inuyasha and Koga come to a corner of the warehouse paths. "What are you doing?" Koga rudely points at Inuyasha. "I don't have to tell you a thing." Inuyasha crossed his arms instead of answering. "Then why are you here, Koga?" Sango asks him with suspicion. "I just found out that Kagome is somewhere in this area." He answers his answer. "How so?" Inuyasha sneers at him. "I'm a wolf demon you idiot. My nose is more superior than yours." He proudly tells Inuyasha. That made Inuyasha want to throw a punch at him until something struck him in thought. "What's wrong, mutt. Don't have the guts?" Koga teases him. Inuyasha sniffs him carefully. "How rude." Koga backs away. "You're not the guy who I confronted at Kagome's place. What's going on here?" Inuyasha tells Sango and Miroku.

"What are you talking about?" Koga is confused. "Inuyasha came to Kagome's about 4 days ago. Where were you? Kagome told me when she came, she spotted you in one of the parking lots." Sango explains to him. Koga blinks his icy blue eyes. "I was out of town at that time. Are you telling me that I…" Before Koga could finish off, Sango raised her hand to stop him. "I know the real truth Koga." She tells him. "About what?" Koga is still unconfused about this. Sango fiddles with her fingers nervously. "Spit it out Sango! What are you hiding from me?" Koga comes up to her. "I spied on you." She admits to him. "Do you know about this?" Koga turns to Inuyasha and Miroku. "Unfortunately I have." Miroku tells him first. Inuyasha on the other hand doesn't respond to him. "How was it that you spied on me?" Koga turns back to Sango. "My brother is a sneaky little guy who sneaked a little camera onto your backpack." She answers to the wolf.

"Are you saying that…" Kagome is beyond shocked to hear whatever Naraku is going to say to her. "That's right, Kagome. The real Koga is completely innocent by all means." He grins back at her. "But why would you do that? What did I ever do to you?" Kagome asks him. That made Naraku frown darkly. "You see, Kagome. Back at school, you were the only one that I ever wanted to know. However Koga had you wrapped around his finger to make sure you stay away from me." Kagome has no idea on what to say next. "As such I disguised myself as his father to make sure that the real Koga is away for three years and when he was gone, I took over his position. And I bet you know what happened at that moment.

_Flashback 4 years ago_

_ Kagome and Koga are enjoying their time together at lunch. Naraku on the other hand is at his own table, glaring at them without either of them seeing it. As soon as the bell rings, the students gather their belongings to get to there next class. Koga and wraps his arm around Kagome's shoulder. "So what are you doing after school?" Koga asks her. "I'm just going home and do the usual. Spend time with my family and do my homework. What about you?" Kagome answers casually. "I'm going to help my dad out with his business. You know how he is." Koga spoke back. "Oh yeah. Your father's business is meant to stay in the family. Has he picked out anyone in the family to take over when you know?" Kagome asked but stops in the end, not to upset him._

_ Koga nods. "I know. You should know I'm an only child, and my mom passed away when I was a kid. So I have no choice but to take over the business." Koga explains his back story. Little did they know that a certain someone eavesdropped on their conversation. 'So he's an only child. How said.' He said. So far Naraku knows exactly where Koga lives, and has a plot coming together._

_ That afternoon, Koga enters his house. "Welcome home, Koga." His father greets him. "Dad? Why are you home early? You don't usually come home until another 2 hours." Koga is surprised. He knows his father's schedule when it's time he comes home from work. "I've decided on something." His father starts off. Koga raised his own brow. "Ok…" He replies. "I found out that due to your GPA, I thought that it was best that you leave for college." His father tells him seriously._

_ "What are you talking about, dad. I'm just a junior. I still have one more year left to graduate high school. Why now all of a sudden?" Koga is beyond confused. "I found a perfect college for you already. It's been paid in full so there's no need to get any student loans." The father continues on. "I don't know, dad. This is just too soon. What about Kagome? I can't just leave her." He still uncertain on what to do. "Koga, I know how much Kagome means to you. And you should tell her that this." His father tries his best to convince his son. He then gives Koga a brochure of the college he picked out for him. Koga reads it anyway until he finds out where it is. "Dad, this is in New York City. I can't go there." He declines immediately._

_ "Koga this is for your own good. Besides it has the best classes of business. Besides when you're old enough, I'll step down and let you take over the company." The father sternly tells him. Knowing how his father is whenever he's serious about something, Koga has no choice. "When do I leave?" He admits defeat. "You're flight there is this weekend. So go gather your things from school. I've already told the school's faculty about this." His father answers as he goes outside to the porch._

_End of Flashback_

All Kagome is develop tears in her eyes as she tries her best to get herself. "You sick jerk. How dare you." She cries out to him.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The scent of Kagome's tears gets Inuyasha and Koga's noses. "This way." Inuyasha runs off ahead with Koga right by. It didn't take long for them to find the warehouse where the scent is coming from. With their strength, the two boys managed to break the door down to look inside. Inside has them see it with disgust in theirs. "Koga. What a surprise." Naraku speaks to him. Koga snarls at him. "You bastard. What the hell did you do to Kagome?" Koga demands the man. Inuyasha helps Kagome out of her binds of the handcuffs. "I see you have Inuyasha with you. I have to admit that this is interesting." Naraku casually tells him.

Inuyasha helps Kagome onto his back while Koga does the unthinkable. He punches Naraku in the face and in the gut. "Don't you even come near Kagome ever again." He warns the psycho, but what happens next surprised them. "It's a wooden doll. I knew for sure that Naraku is just a coward as usual." Inuyasha tell him. Koga punches the wall above the wooden doll. "We're taking this as evidence." He confirms as he leaves the warehouse. Inuyasha can tell that Kagome is so tired from all of this. Sango sees Inuyasha with her on his back. "Kagome, you okay?" Sango asks quickly to make sure that Kagome isn't hurt anywhere. "I'm just so tired." Kagome weakly responds to her. "Let's get her home." Sango suggests Inuyasha. Inuyasha agrees as he get Kagome into the SUV's back seat with Sango sitting next to her.

As soon as the group make it to the apartment complex, Sango digs through Kagome's purse to find the key to make sure they can get in. She tells the guy who spoke with her that Kagome is way too tired to unlock her own apartment. He didn't mind and let them in. Once Sango opens the door, Inuyasha gently takes her to her bedroom to let her rest. He steps out and heads back into the living room where everyone else is waiting. "She's weak. We all know that." He tells them already. He can see Koga in conflict as well. "Inuyasha, I just want to make sure you know fully well that I'm innocent." Koga begins.

Inuyasha raises his hand. "I know you don't have to tell me. I knew for sure that Naraku bastard's scent was that of deception. Besides I already know about your innocence." He assures him. "But tell me this, Koga. How was it that you knew that somehow Naraku was the one behind all of this?" Miroku asks him. Koga tells them about he was to go to college in New York, had no idea that his father was Naraku all this time. "So Naraku managed to make you believe that you were better off going to New York so he can get close to Kagome?" Inuyasha asks him. Koga just nods. "I even told Kagome about it, and trust me, she didn't like it one bit…"

_Flashback_

_ Koga gets to his locker. He has only three days left until he has to leave. "Koga." Kagome runs up to him. "Oh hi, Kagome." He replies as cheerful as he could be. Kagome knows that look. "What's wrong?" She asks him. She sees him getting all of his belongings out. "I hate to say this, but I'm going to college next week." He tells her. Kagome didn't see this coming. "College? Koga you're just a junior and have another year to go." She said in a matter of fact tone. "Trust me Kagome. I tried to get my dad to change his mind but he was serious about all of this." Koga explains to her about this sudden moment. "When do you leave?" Kagome asks more quietly. "This Saturday." Koga answers to her. Kagome helps him with the remaining stuff he had in the locker. "Let's get these to your house." He tells her. Kagome blinks her eyes. "My house? But this is all of your stuff." She disagrees with his decision. _

_ "No I mean you'll have some of my stuff to remember me by." Koga tells her clearly. Kagome nods to let him know she gets it. When they get to Kagome's house, Koga helps her with the box that had some of his things with. They make it up to her bedroom. "So I guess this is it." Kagome starts first. Koga nods. "Yeah.' All he does is hug her dearly. He's not that kind of guy who would step over his own pride to take the next step._

_End of Flashback_

The room felt silent after Koga's story. "Koga I just want to say I'm sorry for what I did. I have no right to do those things to you." Sango starts off. "Sango. I know what you mean. But it was Naraku would disguise himself as me, so there is no need for an apology." Koga waves her off. "So what are we going to do?" He asks the room. Not a single person could come up with an answer.

About an hour later, Kagome comes to find herself in her bedroom. AS she tries to sit up, her head pounds from the inside. A sharp cry gets the group's attention to come to her room. "Kagome, are you ok?" Sango asks her. Kagome looks up to see Koga among them. She cries in fear into Sango's arms. "Sango, please keep him away from me." She begs her friend. Koga knew for sure that Kagome isn't ready to face him, despite what she just went through. "He's innocent." Sango tries to tell her.

Kagome shakes her head, "No you don't understand. He's the one who raped me." She tells her frantically. Koga just walks away, knowing this isn't going to be easy. "Miroku, Inuyasha, Hakkaku, could you guys give us a moment?" Sango requests the rest of the group to give Sango and Kagome the privacy they need. "Sure." Miroku responds as he simply guides the guys away from the girl.

Sango closes the door. "What else are you not telling me, Sango?" Kagome begins, she suddenly stopped crying. "I'm not hiding anything. This is all I know so far." Sango responds as she sits next to Kagome on the bed. "Sango. I know what happened." Kagome stares at her. "Know what?" Sango asks her. "That guy who kidnapped me. He was the one who did it to me." Sango is still confused. "You mean Naraku? Yeah, I was able to track him down with Inuyasha's help. And not just that, Naraku disguised himself as Koga throughout the time." She explains to her. Kagome looks down to her quivering hands. "I should've seen this coming. I should've known that something was wrong with Koga when he told me that he was leaving." Kagome starts off.

_Flashback_

_It was Friday morning, and Kagome isn't in the best of moods to move on with the day up ahead. As she gets her things from her locker, she closes it to find Koga leaning onto the locket next to her. "Oh, Koga, I didn't expect you to be here. I thought that you were still packing to go to college." She said sadly to him. But then Koga smiles. "It turns out that I won't be going to college after all." He tells her. Kagome blinks her eyes. Is she hearing this right? Two days ago she was told that he was going to college and now all of a sudden he's not going. "What made your dad changed his mind?" Kagome asks him curiously. Koga stands straight up. "Well, it turns out that I need to complete my high school years in order to go. I'm speechless on how to respond to his idea. But all I can say is this. I'm relieved." He keeps his smile on his face._

_ All Kagome does is tear up her eyes and embrace him. "I'm so glad you're not going." She weeps. All Koga does is return the hug._

_End of Flashback_

Sango couldn't believe it. "I just want to know one thing, Kagome." She speaks to her. Kagome looks up to her. "What is it?" She nervously asks her friend. "Did Koga change since then?" She asks her. Kagome had to think of a good answer. "Since then he began to open up his feelings for me. I had no idea that since graduation, he proposed to me in secret. I was so happy. But then that's when he went to the bad side of our marriage. And you know the rest." She tells Sango. "And that's when we were in court, the judge ruled him on a restraining order after the divorce." All Kagome does is nod.

But now, Kagome knows the truth. And the first she needs to do is to make amends to Koga. But the only thing that also crossed Kagome's mind is if that their relationship was really a mistake or the right choice since that time?


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The next day Kagome returns to her class and gave her professor the project she did. After a few minutes, the professor seems intrigued. "I have to admit that this is quite the etude work you put together. Kagome." He starts off. Kagome can tell that something else is preventing any more positive comments. "But there's something that even I have no idea on what you put in." He tells her seriously. Kagome looks to see which part of the project that the professor was talking about. "Where?" She asks him. The professor looks back to the project. "It's here." He points to the spot about the so called error. "Oh. Yeah I was in the position to make it understandable, but knowledgeable. My client had some details he didn't want me to put on this. And I respect his privacy." Kagome explains to the professor. "I see. But nonetheless, Kagome, you know what is permitted to be on someone else's research. As well as their reasons not to be noticed on the spot." The professor tells her proudly.

Kagome nods back. "Thank you. I'll be going now." She walks out of the class. As she left the classroom, Koga is leaning on the wall nonchalantly. "Hey." He greets her without looking at her. "Oh hi. Can we talk?" Kagome asks him. Koga nods as they went somewhere private so no one could do something that they might regret. And what better place to be on the building roof. "Is it about what happened with Naraku?" Koga asks her. Kagome nods. "Yeah. Koga, I was just naïve when you told me that you were going to New York to attend college, and then the day before you left, you came back to tell me that your father changed his mind at the last minute." She sits down on the floor.

"But you didn't know that it was Naraku was imposing as me the entire time. I really did go to New York and I had no idea that I left you so vulnerable. And I'm sorry that I let that happened." Koga speaks back as he sits next to her. "If I just stayed put, I wouldn't had left you. And I guess it's too late." He adds in. Kagome can tell Koga feels so ashamed and blames himself. And that's true since that time. "I just want to know something." Koga speaks after a long silence. Kagome looks at him. "If I didn't leave you, would we still be in that kind of relationship?" Koga asks her.

Kagome has no idea on how to answer that. "I'm not sure. I thought that we had that sibling relationship since both of us are an only child." She honestly replies to him. She looks at him to see how he's going to react to it. "I see. To be honest with you, I thought that you might have stronger feelings for me. And I take it that it's not meant to be." Koga tells her in an okay way. "Naraku manipulated your emotions and feelings to make sure you would feel different about me when I came back. And I guess there's no redemption."

Kagome nods. "I'm truly sorry for what I did to you. I guess I wasn't ready for that kind of relationship I was getting into. And I was a fool to let that happened. When I left the courtroom for the judge to have a restraining order, I promised not to fall in love again." She tells him seriously. Koga nods back. "But that doesn't last does it?" He boldly asks her.

Kagome chuckles. "Seems it didn't. I'm just getting over this so called divorce that you and I are supposed to be in And I somehow found someone else who's going to the same thing." Koga can tell that Kagome isn't good at this trying to go and know someone else after a breakup. "It's Inuyasha?" He asks her nervously. "Yeah. But I didn't ask him what made him like this. Miroku is his only confidant. And it's best that I don't go into that topic." She looks over the roof to see the campus. Koga can tell that Kagome does like Inuyasha, but not the way she likes him. "When he's ready to tell. I'll be there to make sure to help him out." Koga gives her his support. Kagome turns to face him. "Definitely Koga." Kagome heads back into the building. "I'll see you later." She closes the door. Koga looks out the direction. "But there's something I must do to make sure she doesn't go through that again." He said to himself before heading back in.

Kagome comes out the staircase, and sees Sango with a concerned look. "I saw you going outside with Koga." She states to her. "Yeah, so." Kagome waves it off as she walks in a different direction. "I was just worried for what happened up there." She runs up to her friend's side. "Does it look like something bad happened to me when I was up there?" Kagome gazes at her. "No. But that's not the point. I just want to make sure you are in good terms with him despite the restraining order." Sango responds to her. "We are and we came up with a conclusion." She tells Sango as they head out of the building. "And what was that?" Sango asks her curiously. Kagome had to come up with a honest respond. "I was just naïve to realized for how foolish I was when I thought that my idea of a relationship and Koga's idea were like. True that we were both an only child and know the kind of loneliness can be for the both of us. When we met, I felt that he could be a brother I'd like to have, and him to have a sister he never had. And we just hung out like that. But not intimately." Kagome gives her conclusion.

"And he was okay with this?" Sango asks her. "Yeah. For what I went through, and what he did that left me vulnerable by accident. He found out what happened, and wanted to set things straight. He also knew that our relationship is not to be taken to the next step. We were just like that sibling relationship. Nothing more." Kagome said to her.

"But what about Inuyasha?" Sango asks her. "What about him?" Kagome asks her back. "When you were sick, Inuyasha came over to check up on you." Kagome closes her eyes. She knows exactly where this is going. "Sango, Inuyasha didn't have to check up on me. You wanted him to do that. Not me." Kagome is getting frustrated by this. "I just thought that he'd be the better person to look after you." Sango tells her seriously.

Kagome sharply turns to her. "Are you trying to be the matchmaker between me and him? I thought I made it clear not to go through that again. So don't bother doing something like that again." Kagome gets into her car to go home.

Sango feels bad about this. "Sango." Koga comes to her. "Oh it's you." She sourly responds to him. "Sango that was completely wrong for you to do that to her." Koga begins. "I don't need to be lectured. I know what I did was a mistake." She glares. "Then why are you doing this to her? As far as I'm concerned you don't want Kagome to be in that." He tells her. "You're one to talk, Koga. Ever since that day for that restraining order, Kagome still felt so vulnerable. She doesn't feel safe anywhere. Not even her own house." Sango tells him angrily. "And if you ever pull something like that again, not only will you suffer the consequences, but you're going to be officially restrained." She warns him before she walks to her own car.

Koga knows for sure that even after the breakup, Sango doesn't like it when Kagome is in the state of feeling insecure. And for that he has to do something to make sure she doesn't go through that again.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Kagome enters her apartment parking lot. As she pulls into her spot, another car pulls into the visitor spot across from Kagome's. Kagome heads back into the building. "Kagome." A voice calls out to her. Kagome turns around to see Inuyasha coming towards her. "Oh, it's you." Kagome frowns as she crossed her arms. "Sango told me what happened." Inuyasha tells her. "So I guess Sango doesn't want to endure my wrath of my insecurity." Kagome jokes to him. "She's just worried about you. Can you blame her?" Inuyasha retorts to her. "Inuyasha. I'm not in a talkative mood right now." Kagome is about to open the door with her key until Inuyasha grabs it. "Hey give that back." Kagome tries to jump as high as she could to get her key back. "Not until you come out of that insecure shell of yours." Inuyasha grins at her. "This isn't funny, Inuyasha. I need to go back inside." Kagome cries out angrily. "So you can feel safe in there? Well here's something you should know. No matter wherever you go, there's not a single place that is consider safe for you." Inuyasha tells her sternly.

Just hearing that made Kagome drop down to her knees. "Look Kagome. You need to tolerate such things. I'm not here to make feel that way. I'm just here because you're not the only who's been feeling that way." Inuyasha gets down to her level. "You don't sound like me though." Kagome looks back to him. Inuyasha pulls her back up as well as giving her key back. "That's because I gotten over it. It wasn't easy though." Kagome is confused. "You did too?" She asks him. Inuyasha nods as he takes her to his vehicle.

A few minutes later, Inuyasha let's Kagome into his apartment. Kagome would expect a bachelor pad, typical belongings of the guy. But there were a few things that Kagome never seen before. One of the shelves holds a crystal picture of a girl. Kagome is somehow drawn to it. As she walks to it, it shows that the girl looks identical to her. "That's Kikyo." Inuyasha speaks silently to her. "Oh. Well she's very beautiful though." Kagome respects the topic with a smile. "And how is she to you?" She asks nervously. Inuyasha picks up the structure. "My deceased wife." He tells her. Kagome gasps, "Oh I'm truly sorry about your lost." She gives her condolences. "Yeah. But I was aware for how she died, and I couldn't save her in the end." He tells her. "What do you mean?" Kagome asks curiously.

_Flashback_

_ Inuyasha is at the hospital. He and Kikyo are waiting for the final results for what was going with Kikyo. The door opens and the doctor enters. "Kikyo." He speaks to her. "According to what I found out about you, I'm sadly to admit that you have stage 4 breast cancer." He tells her. "But how did she get it?" Inuyasha asks him. The doctor looks at the chart he's carrying with him. "The cause is that it was something that I have never seen before. Even I can't tell what exactly it is." He explains to him. "May I see it?" Inuyasha asks him. The doctor hands over the chart. Inuyasha and Kikyo read the report to see what it's telling him. "And none of the scientists are able to get to a solid idea on what it is?" Kikyo asks him. The doctor shakes his head. "Not a single one can even come up with a solution, treatment or cure for this." He replies frankly. _

_ Kikyo controls her tears that are about to fall. "How much more time do I have left to live?" She asks him as she hands over the chart back to him. "I'd say about 3 months is all you have. Even if the option to amputate the effected area won't be able to lengthen your life." He explains the possibilities wouldn't do her any good. "I'm truly sorry about all of this." He just left the room._

_End of Flashback _

"And just like that, he left us. I bet he didn't want to give us any more bad news that could affect Kikyo's death. I even did all I could to save her with Sesshomaru's help but even he wasn't able to help out." Inuyasha continues on with his story. "And sadly Kikyo only lived for another month." He places the sculpture back onto the shelf. Kagome can tell that how much suffering Inuyasha had to go through. "And the only way to move on is to make sure that she rests in peace. I knew for sure that I had to walk a path of grief but I made sure that my feelings for her would always be there to guide me to move on." He talks some more when they sat onto the couch. "Inuyasha. I never expected that could that affect you that much. You managed to get over it in such a short amount of time. Me on the other hand had to go through that at a much longer period of time." Kagome admits to him.

"I know that Sango spoke behind your back was not meant to be, but she believed that I could be the one to guide you on that path that you don't want to be on. When she told me about what you and Koga did on the building's roof, I knew for sure that Koga that was with you was innocent because of the man who imposing as him." Inuyasha takes hold of her shoulder. "And I want to make sure that you don't fall for such tricks. Because from now on, I'll be looking after you, even if you don't ask me to."

Kagome is at a loss for words. She has no idea on how to say to him. A few phrases pass through her head. Should him let him do that or not? She doesn't know. "Are you trying to have me fill in the void of your wife?" She asks him that instead. Inuyasha is surprised by that. "Not even the slightest. I could never replace her with you. We're just getting to know each other. We're not at that point to make such a decision like that." Inuyasha denies that fact. Even so, Kagome is not sure if she can believe him.

Inuyasha takes Kagome back to her apartment. Kagome is shocked to ride in Inuyasha's SUV. It was a very nice vehicle for him to have. Compare to her average sedan, she couldn't be at the same level of class. "Thanks for the ride." Kagome speaks nicely to her as she hops out. "Let me know if you need a lift." Inuyasha offers to her. "I'll let you know whenever my car is out of commission." Kagome replies back as a joke. Inuyasha just watches her go into the building with her key. Inuyasha pulls out of the parking lot and goes home.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Sango and Miroku are at their little coffee shop. "So, it just stays like that?" Miroku asks Sango after she told what Kagome told her earlier. "Yeah, I'm just not liking this one bit." Sango frowns throughout her reply. "And why's that? Is it just not the way you want it to go?" Miroku challenges her. Sango doesn't want to be taunted. "I'll take that as a yes. Sango you must know by now that Kagome is still recovering from the revelation, the break up with Koga officially. She's not ready to try her relationship with Inuyasha." Miroku tells her right off the bat.

"I just can't sit at the sidelines and watch Kagome go through with this. You have no idea how much of an affect it does on my end." Sango speak a bit louder than she should. That made a few other people look at her with mixed reactions. And not a single one is a positive one. Sango sighs as she stands up and grabs her purse. "I'm leaving early." She tells him.

Miroku on the other is staying in his seat. "Ok, but don't do anything foolish." He warns her as she leaves. Sango rolls her eyes. 'Yeah like I'll take that into consideration.' She sarcastically replies to herself in her head. AS she gets to her car, she finds that the tires have been slashed. "What the…" She widens her eyes as she checks each of the four tires. "Who did this?" She stands back up to see if anything out of the ordinary is notice around the area. She looks up to see is there's any security cameras around to catch the culprit. Not one is seen. "This is just great." She groans as she heads back to the coffee.

Miroku checks his cell phone to see if there's anything interesting to know. Then two hands slams onto his table. "Miroku." Sango tells him. Miroku looks up to see Sango is back with an angry expression. "Back so soon?" He pathetically jokes to her. "No. Some douchebag slashed my car's tires. I don't even have any spares left." She tells him as she sits back in her previous spot. "Ok so what do you do if you find your car's tires being slashed?" Miroku asks her. "I already called for a tow. I know what I have to do. I'm not dumb." She crossed her arms. Miroku stuffs his cell into his jacket pocket and heads out of the shop with Sango right behind him.

Miroku looks at the slashed tires. "I can tell that these slashed are not made by a person. More like a weapon." He tells her the details he gathered so far. Soon enough the tow truck arrives as the parking lot. "Are you Sango?" The driver asks her out of his window. Sango raised her hand. "Yeah I'm Sango. This car is mine." She tells him. The driver hops out to come to see the damage. "No biggie. We can get these replaced." He tells her as he grabs the hook from the back of his truck bed, and holt it onto it. Even with the tires slashed, the car was able to get on just find. "I can give you a lift to the shop." The driver offers Sango.

"No that won't be necessary. I'll follow you with him." Sango smiles devilishly at Miroku. Miroku just moans in annoyances as he and Sango follow the tow truck driver to the shop to get the car's tires replaced.

Inuyasha is still focusing on his business, but the event where he saved Kagome still plagues his minds. Just thinking about it makes him sick to his stomach. And it's not the stench of the area where she was held captive. He looks at the clock on his desktop. It tells him that he can leave in the next five minutes. "Screw this." He said as he saves his documents and turns off the computer. He gathers his belongings and heads out of the building.

He drives all the way to the scene where he and his friends saved Kagome. He comes into the warehouse where he found her. He sees that the dirty bed with the cuffs chained to the bed's metal head and foot boards. He turns to the spot where Naraku got hit pretty hard that he was knocked out. But then something gets his attention. He kneels down to pick what turns out to be a business card of some sort. This could be what Inuyasha has been looking for. He looks around the room a few more times to make sure he doesn't miss anything else other than the business card.

Kagome is in her apartment doing her college work. Even though her professor was impressed with her work, she still didn't feel satisfied about it. As for her class is being a psychiatrist. She just has the urge to help those who can't seem to feel accepted about their lives. And for the project was just the starting point. The door bell rings. She comes up the button. "Who is it?" She asks into the microphone. "It's me." Inuyasha's voice replies to her. Ok she really didn't expect Inuyasha of all of the people she just met decided to come to her. "Come in." Kagome presses the other button to unlock the door to let him in. Kagome hurries to the table where her projects and resources of her school and take them to her room. If there's one thing she doesn't want anyone to see are those papers. It'd be just embarrassing. And she's not ready to show it to anyone.

The door opens, and Inuyasha comes in. "Kagome." He calls out to her. "I'm coming." Kagome replies as she gets out of her room and into the living room where Inuyasha is sitting on the sofa. "What brings you here?" Kagome asks him curiously. "I found something that you might be interested in." Inuyasha pulls out the business card that he found at the warehouse. Kagome takes the card and reads what's on it. That's when she widens her eyes.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

"No, this can't be real." Kagome spoke after taking in from what the card said. The card is a business that has Kagome's father's name on it. But it also has another name on it under her father's name. It was Hirako Wolf. Koga's father. True Kagome knew about Koga's last name, which would make sense for some reason. But this is out of hand. "Why would Naraku have this?" Kagome asks Inuyasha. "I have no clue. But if you need to find the answer, you would have to asks Koga himself. Maybe he might know a thing or two about this." Inuyasha suggested to her.

Kagome picks up her and shockingly she still has his number. "Well there's only one way to find out." She said as she presses the dial number to call him. After a few rings, the other line spoke. "Hello?" It was Koga. "Hey, I have a question to ask you." Kagome immediately said. "Ok." Koga tells back. "Does your father work with my dad?" Kagome asks him. A few seconds passed by. "Not anymore. Why's that?" Koga answers her. "I happen to stumble upon a business card that has our father's names on it. Want me to send you a pic of it?" Kagome said to him. "Sure, send it over." Koga allows it. Kagome takes a picture of the card, both front and back and sends it over.

Koga gets the pictures. After seeing what's on it baffles him. "Kagome. This business card was 20 years ago. There's no way our fathers would be working together at that time." He tells her. "Really? I didn't know that. Do you happen to have the current business card of your dad's job?" Kagome asks him in the end. "I'll get to it by tomorrow. I'm about to leave school, and head back to my house tonight. Besides I have a few things to find out for myself." Koga assures her. Inuyasha just watches Kagome carefully. "Ok let me know what you found out." Kagome said to him. She hangs up.

"So…" Inuyasha begins. "He's going back home." He assumes to her. Kagome sets her phone down. "Yeah. Sounds to me that he needs to talk to his dad about this. Maybe there's more to this than I thought." Kagome theorizes to him. Inuyasha doesn't know what to say next. "Maybe you should do the same." He suggests after a few minutes. "I might as well. I know my dad would know more about this." She picks up her phone and the card. He watches her go down the hall to get her purse and keys. "What are you doing?" He asks her as she comes back with her coat. "I'm heading to my parents." She answers him in a matter of fact tone.

"Then I'm going with you." Inuyasha offers. That stopped Kagome from opening the door. "Inuyasha, you've done enough. But now this is were we part ways." She opens the door and leaves the apartment unaware that he's still there. Inuyasha looks out of the window to see Kagome drive out of the parking lot. "Like hell I'm doing that." He tells himself as he decides to go against Kagome's word and follow her to her parent's house.

Koga pulls up to the house he grew up in. Not much has changed other than the house is in a different color. Instead of white, it's in a pale blue. He spots his dad's car through the open garage door. He gets into the house through the back down. "Hello?" He calls out to his dad. "Koga?" His father asks in surprise. Koga walks into the living room to see his father watching some tv. "What brings you here son?" Hirako asks him. "I thought it'd be alright to come for a visit." Koga casually tells him as he sits down on the couch while Hirako is relaxing in his recliner. "Ok. So what brings you here thought. You'd usually call me to let me know you're coming over." He explains to his son

"This is more than that. I found something that wouldn't go well with a phone call." Koga responds back as he pulls out his cell phone. "And what's so urgent to let me know about?" Hirako asks him curiously. Koga hands over his phone to Hirako to show him the picture that Kagome took during their last phone call. That's when Hirako widens his eyes. "Where did you get this?" He asks Koga. "First of all, I got this from Kagome, when one of her friends found this." Koga corrected him.

"Really? Well first of all this is just prototype. I don't understand how one was found by one of Kagome's friends." Hirako is shocked to see it. Koga on the other hand doesn't want to tell his father which one of Kagome's friends was it that found it. More like her new boyfriend. True that Koga and Kagome broke up, and it was for the best for the both of them.

Kagome gets home. As she pulls up the driveway, she sees her dad working on something in the garage. She gets out. Her dad hears the door closing. "Dad." Kagome calls out to him as she comes into the garage. "Oh Kagome. I thought that you were back in college." He jokes as she hugs him. "What brings you home?" He asks her as they pull away. Kagome digs into her purse to pull out the card. "Have you seen this before?" She asks as she hands it over to her father.

Hige remained relaxes after taking the card from Kagome. But Kagome can tell that this is bothering him. "Where did you find this?" He asks her calmly. "My friend found it in a warehouse." Kagome answers the question, but not including the time where she was abducted and kept in the warehouse where she was trapped in. "Really. Well I can tell you this because Mr. Wolf were close to be partners to be bosses of the company." All Kagome do is tilt her head. "What happened to that?" Hige has no idea rather or not to tell her what happened back then.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Koga sits on the sofa across from his dad. "Are you going to tell me what happened to you and Mr. Higurashi?" He asks impatiently. His dad on the other hand isn't really sure on how to answer this. "It's best we discuss this with Mr. Higurashi himself." He finally spoke. Koga isn't too happy about it. "I'm not going." Koga crossed his arms, decided not to go. Hirako stood up. "You don't have a choice in this one. Besides this is the only to resolve this issue." He gestures him to come out the garage and ride in his car. "You do know where the Higurashi Family live?" Koga asks instead of stating the sentence. "Well of course I know where they live." Hirako raises his one eyebrow to show his son that he knows exactly the location. "Let's get this over with." He sighs as they leave the house.

Back at the Higurashi house, Kagome is losing her patience, seeing her dad is reluctant about telling her the story behind the business card that Inuyasha found. All of a sudden, a car pull up to their driveway. They turn to see the car's headlights turn off as the car is turn off. That's when Koga and his dad come out of the car. "Hige." Hirako greets him casually. "Hirako? What are you doing here?" Hige asks him. Judging by the tone of voice, Kagome nudges his arm. "Dad, stop being rude." She gently scolds him. "Hello, Kagome." Koga greets her. Kagome on the other hand isn't too thrilled about seeing her ex-husband visiting her. "What brings you two here?" She asks him. Before Koga could answer Hirako raises his hand midway to stop him. "He told me about the card that you found in a warehouse." He tells her.

"Ok, so what's with the card?" Kagome asks him. "Like I said, me and your father were going to be in a partner managers for the business, but then something happened…"

_Flashback 20 years_

_ Hige and Hirako are reviews the contract that was presented to them. "Are you sure we should do this?" Hige asks him in concern. Hirako reads the contract yet again. "To be honest, I'm no sure. It's rare for something like this to work. Normally there's just the manager and then the assistant manager. But never two who have the same amount of knowledge of running the company." Hirako replies as he sits into his office chair. "We have until this weekend to give our final decision." Hige reminds him. Hirako nods. "Yeah. I'm just not ready to do this. But I want to make sure if you're ready to do this?" He looks back to Hige. "I'm in the same position. So you're not the only one." He honestly speaks back._

_ For what they are given is the newest position that has never happened before. Two Managers working together in equal terms. "We should take a break from this." Hige tells him. Hirako nods. "Yeah. Maybe tomorrow when we more feel confident about this." He agrees. They leave the building. They head to Hirako's house. Thursday night is Poker night. And since Hirako is a single father, he usually has his friends over. "How's Koga doing?" Hige asks him. "He's good. He should be the spokesperson during the graduation ceremony." Hirako smiles for how good his son has managed to be the top student. "That's good to hear. Kagome is just as good as him." Hige smiles back. Soon enough two more of Hirako's friends arrive at the house._

_ About two hours later, a few beer bottles are discarded around the table. "So Hige, do you think you can be me." Hirako hiccups to him. Hige raised his one brow. "Oh, I might not be the winner for tonight's game." He replies in the same manner. It's typical for them to drink beer and play poker. "If I win, Koga is to marry your daughter after high school." Hirako tells Hige. "Oh, come Hirako, they're too young to be married." Hige disagrees. "Can't you see how much those two love each other?" Hirako tries to convince his friend. "I know, but they don't have the maturity that is needed to proof that." Hige is still unsure to let this kind of gambling get out of line. "Think about it. If they get married, have a family and then they can inherit the business." And the conversation went on and on. And at the end of the day was the fate of Kagome, and Koga._

_End of Flashback_

At the end of the story, Kagome is dumbfounded. "Really dad?" She murmured. Hige can see how much the story is affecting her. "Excuse me." She runs off. Koga is about to go after her until Hige takes his shoulder. "Let her go. You may be over for what you went through. But not her." He tells him seriously. Koga just nods his head and sits on one of the chairs not knowing on what he can do at this point. As Kagome walks aimlessly on the sidewalk of her old neighborhood. She fiddles with fingers that have been tucked in her coat's pockets. At the block of the street she sees the playground across the street. She can clearly see it's empty. Especially at the hours of night.

She can remember that the playground was completely different when she and Koga were kids. Instead of metal and plastic parts for kids to adventure into, it was entirely built out of wood. However, as time went by the wood began to weaken and as such the playground had to be replaces with different items. She then walks onto the playground's floors so that the children wouldn't get hurt if they fell down. She just sits in an empty swing. As she swings her legs. She's at a standstill. Then the lights from a car approaches the area. Kagome looks up but is blinded by the glare of the car beams. Soon the lights turn off to let Kagome recover her vision. "Kagome?" The voice calls out to her. Kagome is shocked to see who it was that called out to her.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The car door opens to let out the driver. "Kagome? What are you doing here?" It was Inuyasha who showed a concerned face. "How did you know where I was?" Kagome asks him instead of answering. Inuyasha walks up to the swings where Kagome is sitting in one of them. "I picked your scent in my way into town." He answers her.

"You followed me, didn't you?" Kagome is annoyed to realized that. "Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't." Inuyasha counters her casually. "Inuyasha you were close to my house. When I left, I noticed a fancy car parked in the streets. And I knew throughout my life, not a single household would own something like yours. So I had a hunch that it was yours when I spotted it." Kagome analyses the observations. Inuyasha just ignored her though. "So why did you follow me?" She asks him.

Inuyasha sits in the swing next to hers. "I was concerned about the outcome for what might happened." He replies to her. "Inuyasha with all due in respect, you shouldn't get involved with someone's problems. And why did you do that?" Kagome asks without looking at him. Okay so he was nosy, but not literally. "I don't know to be honest. I was somehow drawn into it." He mimics Kagome's posture. "I just don't want to rude but you should know that I care about you. I was never liked that when I was married to Kikyo. She always wanted to make sure her family knew nothing of me throughout our time together. But when she was on her deathbed, she had to tell them about me. She kept that secret for as long as she could."

Kagome never expected that. His own deceased wife never told her family about him one bit. "The thing is that Kikyo was raised very religiously and they think that I'm the being from hell. And Kikyo was the angel. I didn't deserve her though. But she had her moment when she has had enough of being raised that way. She knew about what would happen when we got married. That's why she had to lie to her own flesh and blood about taking week off and elope with me." Inuyasha continues on with his story. Kagome can now see why Inuyasha feels this way after the death of his wife. "When her family came in to say their farewells. All of them gave me a look of disgust. They never liked me. But what Kikyo told them shocked them greatly." He chuckles. "What did she tell them?" Kagome asks him curiously. "She said them to back off. She didn't care about my heritage. All that mattered to her was that we loved each so much that they had to respect that rather they liked it or not. And she was serious about that. Ever since, I was looked upon as an equal. But I think of it was pity. So in an act of kindness, I thought that I was best that I gave them all of Kikyo's possessions. I didn't want much out of it. I have a few things that we bought together and I'm fine with that."

"Inuyasha, I never thought that Kikyo would be like that. But she had her reasons why she didn't want her family to know you." She spoke gently. "Even though she was raised that way, there are times that she has to break those laws to make sure that she finds happiness and that's all that matters to her."

Inuyasha can tell Kagome has a point. There are times that you'll have to do whatever it took to make sure you get it no matter what. "I may not be as religious as Kikyo, but I have prayed through and though many times while she was dying. I prayed to Kami not to let her die. She had so much to live for, and then she got sick. All I can say to him was that it's not fair. No one deserves to be that way. She had dreams, she had ideas to make sure we were ok." He keeps on going, telling Kagome what he's been through the last few days.

"I look like Kikyo, don't I?" Kagome murmurs. Inuyasha can tell by the tone that Kagome is scared of what his reply would be. From the looks of it, it's not a good one. Even being honest isn't good enough. "You do in some ways." That's all Inuyasha told her as the bangs cover his eyes. "Like what?" Kagome asks as she want to know more about his deceased wife. Even though his bangs are still covering his eyes Inuyasha spoke. "It was when I saw you at the college parking lot. From that moment, when I saw you, I thought I was hallucinating. I really thought that is was my wife who was there but it was just you. From the length of your hair to the skin color, and the eyes are not different. However there was one thing that your eyes were holding that Kikyo didn't."

Kagome turns to see him fidgeting his hands. "What was it?" She managed to speak a bit more curious than she thought. "Your eyes were holding emotions. You have that expression that Kikyo couldn't really do. You see when Kikyo was a child, she was to make sure she kept her emotions at a minimum. She was homeschooled so she had no social time with other children. She had her moments but she managed to control them. Her younger Kaede was scared that Kikyo would end up sad and lonely for the rest of her life. When I met her, she was a completely different person. From the stoic posture to a carefree smile she finally felt that she was free from her family's clutches."

Kagome was far astounded about that. During someone's childhood, they have to experiences the joy of anything they like to do. But for Kikyo's case, she didn't get that. The religious part shouldn't be the source of that. The only other method was one thing. "Was she abused." She asks him boldly. Inuyasha just nods with a grip to the swing's chain  
still shaking for what he just told her.

* * *

Dear readers, Sry it took me a long time, a lot has been going with this ordeal we're all going through. I'm fine as we speak. I've been on a writers for awhile and I had to find something else to get that out of the way for me to continue on. I promise that I'll update soon.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

"Yes." Inuyasha quietly replies. "She never told anyone, even me about it." He tells her. Kagome doesn't know if she should go a bit further or just stop that topic. "How did you know about it?" She mouths her question silently. "It was by accident." Inuyasha answers her immediately. Kagome looks at him. "I didn't say anything." She claims to him. Inuyasha shakes his eyes. "Reading your lips was a big give away." He points out to her. Kagome sweat drops. "Oh sorry. I had no idea I did that." She apologizes to him. "I stumbled upon Kikyo's house one time and was able to hear her and someone else in the house. From the tone and scent, it was dangerous. I knew for sure that Kikyo was going out." Inuyasha continues on with his story. Kagome can tell that the further Inuyasha went on, the harder and more painful it gotten. "And so I made sure that I never fall in love again." He concludes to her.

And then at this point, Kagome has come to find out that dealing with something so hurtful is not easy for him. So it's not just her who's going through this. So is Inuyasha. "I'm going back home." She gets out of the swing and is about to walk until her wrist is being hold on. Kagome turns around to see that her wrist is being grasped by Inuyasha's hand. "Don't go." He murmurs to her. Ok a moment ago, Inuyasha was a completely different person. And now he's someone else. "I just don't want to lose you too." He murmurs a bit louder this time. 'Too? Is he talking about me as well?' Kagome tries to get her hand free, but the more she tries, the tighter the grasp gets. "Why are you doing this, Inuyasha? I'm not someone who would be a replacement to your wife." She explains to her as she still tries to get her hand out. "I'm not losing another woman. I lost my mother when she was in a car crash. And then I lost Kikyo to cancer. And now I'm going to lose you as well." He's grasp is shaking drastically. Kagome didn't see this coming. She sighs and embraces him.

A car comes into the area. Inside is Mr. Higurashi. As soon as he parks it into the parking spot, he sees his daughter embracing a person. "Who is she hugging?" He asks himself. He comes out to get a closer look at the scene. The person she's hugging is someone he never seen before. Before he walks down to them, Inuyasha falls onto the ground. "Inuyasha?" Mr. Higurashi finds out the name of the name of the person. "Kagome." He said. Kagome turns around to see her father coming up to them. "Dad, please, I can explain." She starts. But her father raised his hand to stop her. "No need to tell me. We have to get him to the hospital." He turns to Inuyasha's collapse body. Kagome is so worried about Inuyasha's wellbeing. While waiting for the ambulance, she couldn't forget about what Inuyasha to her before he passed out.

As soon as the ambulance arrives, the first responders managed to get Inuyasha onto a stretcher and have him transported to the closest hospital. All Kagome could do is watch helplessly. She has no idea on what to do at this moment. "Kagome." Mr. Higurashi speaks from behind. "I need you to take that man's car to our place and meet me at the hospital." He tells her. Kagome nods as she goes to Inuyasha's car. As she gets in, she only remembers the interior in the back seat of the car. But the front is a whole different story. Unlike her average car which was easy for her to use, this one is more advanced. "How do I start this thing?" She asks as she looks around the dashboard. Thinking the most obvious way to start it, Kagome looks on the steering wheel's side, and no keyslot. 'Ok so no key is required for this thing.'

Thinking back when her father got a new car it had one of those automatic starters. She looks down to see the button. She puts her foot onto the brake and presses the button to start the car. "Welcome, buckle your seatbelt." Kagome does what it says and drives the car to her. If there's one thing Kagome doesn't want to do is to get this thing wrecked. She'd never hear the end of it for the rest of her life. As soon as she gets to her house, she parks Inuyasha's car into the empty slot and gets into her car and heads off to the hospital.

As soon as Kagome arrives at the hospital, she spots her father in the waiting room. "Dad." She comes to him. "Oh god. You're here." He said in relief. "Who's that man you were hugging when I came looking for you?" He asks her. Kagome looks up to him. "I said his name when you first arrived so it shouldn't be that hard to remember it." Kagome crossed her arms. That made her father rub the back on his neck in embarrassment. "Sorry. Anyway, who is he?" He asks her. Kagome knew for sure that her old man is one to get to know the person. "Dad, did mom told you about him? He was the one who took care of me when I was sick. As well as saving me from Naraku."

Mr. Higurashi knows that much. "I know that. But how is it that you to know each other?" He asks it more basically to make it easier for Kagome understand what he's trying to ask her. "Let's just say, he's been through one of the hardest times of his life, and I'm part of it." That's all Kagome could tell him. She just couldn't tell him the entire story. That's Inuyasha's business and not her father's. If there's one thing Kagome doesn't do is to let someone else know about another's life. That's up to the person himself if he wants to tell her father.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

"Kagome…" Mr. Higurashi tries to make her talk about the guy that his daughter was hugging. Kagome just doesn't like doing this. For she respects Inuyasha's wishes, even if she doesn't know what they are exactly to begin with. "All I can tell you is this." She starts off. Her voice is trembling, she just can't do this. All of a sudden she runs offs. Mr. Higurashi frowns to see that his own daughter would do this. He would try everything in his power to persuade her to speak. But then he realized that it's not the right thing to do. Just when he is about to go down the path of his daughter's direction, a new voice stops him. "Mr. Higurashi?"

Mr. Higurashi turns to the direction of the voice that called out to him. That's when he sees a man in a business suit. His hair is long and silver. "Yes?" He responds to the silver haired man. "I'm Sesshomaru Takahashi. I'm Inuyasha's older brother." Sesshomaru introduces himself. "Oh, hello. I was about to go after my daughter that ran off." Mr. Higurashi greets back. Sesshomaru nods. "Yes, I spotted her leaving the building just a second. Her scent was full of uncertainty." He describes Kagome's smell. Then it occurred to Mr. Higurashi that Sesshomaru's way to tell about someone's scent proves that he's a dog demon. "Oh I had no idea." He tells Sesshomaru. "Can you tell me what you saw when you went to the park?" Sesshomaru asks the father.

Mr. Higurashi is confused. "I'm sorry, I never seen you there." He tells Sesshomaru. "It's okay. You see my younger brother is still struggling after losing his wife a few days ago." Sesshomaru assures calmly. Mr. Higurashi didn't see this coming. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know about that." Mr. Higurashi frowns in sadness. 'So maybe that's why Kagome didn't want to tell me.' They both sit in one of the row chairs in the waiting room. "You see, Inuyasha maybe over it physically, but not emotionally." Sesshomaru explains his brother's status. "Not just that. The reason that he's like this was because his wife was the second woman in his life who died. His mother was his first." Sesshomaru begins.

Now it makes sense for Mr. Higurashi. The man that his daughter was hugging was going through the same path that made him go like that. "I assume that they both died of illness." He guesses. "Yes. His mother passed away from a heart attack when he was 5 years old. And his wife died from cancer." Sesshomaru is giving all the answers that Mr. Higurashi was desperate to ask Kagome. "I never knew." He said a few seconds after Sesshomaru explanation. Sesshomaru sighs, "I just hope that Kagome doesn't go through the same path that his mother and wife went through."

But then something crossed Mr. Higurashi's mind. "You said, 'his mother.'? Is his mother…" Before he could finish the question, Sesshomaru hold his hand up to stop. "No, we're half-brother to be specific of our relationship. My mother is a full demon like me, as well as my father." Mr. Higurashi can already figure out about the lineage of the two. "Same dad, different mothers. I lost my mother by the time I was a teenager. I had no idea that I had a younger sibling. And since Inuyasha was left alone after his mother's death, my father made it clear that no matter what, that I must look after him no matter what. True I was disgusted about that, but I had to get over that in order to experience the compassion between us. I know Inuyasha is the same way when he found out about me, but he's still stuck onto the past that he won't move on." Sesshomaru continues on what his brother went through.

Kagome comes out of the restroom. She just couldn't tell her father about Inuyasha. Noticing that she's close to the front desk she goes up to the receptionist. "May I help?" She asks Kagome. "I was wondering where a patient named Inuyasha Takahashi is here?" She asks nicely. The receptionist types in the name. "Ah yes, he's on the 4th floor." She answers the girl. "Thank you." Kagome waves and heads to the closest elevator. After pressing the 4 button on the side, she waits as she rides up the first three floors. The doors open up to let Kagome get off. She looks in one direction to see that it's just a dead end. On the other side of the elevators there are doors for each patient to recover. One door after another, some are vacant, some occupied. But then one has a special message. I.C.U. Kagome blinks her eyes, realizes what that means. Instant Care Unit. She looks to see who's in this position. It widens her eyes. "Oh no." It's Inuyasha who's in here. Kagome look left and right to see if anyone is nearby. She sees no one, and enters in quietly. After closing the door behind her. She gasps to see the room. The monitor is beeping steadily, IVs connects to Inuyasha's exposed arms. But the most shocking thing to see his mouth is being covered with a breathalyzer. Something to keep his breathing normal.

'Oh Inuyasha.' She thinks sadly. She looks around the room, she spots his jacket hung up on the closet rack. But then she spots something in one of the pockets. She comes closet to see that it's his wallet. She takes it out and opens it up. She knows better not to snoop into someone else's possession. But she can't help herself at this point. The first thing she sees are pictures. The first is one of himself as a child and an older woman with him in her arms. 'This is must be his mother.' She smiles as she can tell where Inuyasha's eyes come from as well as the skin tone.

His mother is one lovely woman. With such beauty she bares, of lovely brown eyes with long black hair down to her feet. Her expression shows love and respect. She turns the picture to see his name and the name of his mother, "Izayoi." She quietly spoke. She puts the picture back into the slot it was in. The next slot had another picture of Inuyasha in it, but there's another woman with him. From the looks of it, it's a wedding picture of Inuyasha and his wife, Kikyo. Like back in the apartment when she first saw the crystal figurine of Kikyo. But this picture shows the couple a few years ago to show their youth. "Kagome, who told you to come in here and snoop into my wallet?" Inuyasha murmurs at her. That made Kagome jump.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Kagome is still annoyed that her own father would barge in without even knocking on the closed. "What are you doing here anyway?" Kagome rather asks him instead. Mr. Higurashi sees how his daughter and the boy that she was with at the park are to each. "I was able to hear you from down the hallway when I came out of the elevator." Mr. Higurashi answers her calmly. "No, you were right outside when you eavesdropped on us." Inuyasha tells him instead. Kagome looks after her gasp. "Dad. Why would you do that?" She looks back at him. "Can you blame me, it's a father's duty to look after his own daughter." Mr. Higurashi crossed his arms feeling accused by the way Inuyasha spoke to him. "How could you not trust me, Dad? I'm an adult and you need to let me make my own choices. I don't need your opinion on which one I prefer to do." Kagome is just upset at this.

"Look, Kagome. I know what I did was wrong and I'm so sorry for what I had to put you through. I wouldn't done anything to go back and prevent that from happening." Mr. Higurashi tries to explain himself. Kagome immediate feels that she's been pushed into a corner, no way to get out the dangers that shadowed her. "But you didn't do a thing to make the pain go away. I was abused by him. I could never forgive him." Kagome sniffles.

Inuyasha can see how much suffering that Kagome is still going through. There's no doubt about it. "But why didn't you do anything about it?" Mr. Higurashi asks her. Kagome is confused. "Dad. I thought I told you what happened when I divorced that guy. And you of all people comforted me when I told you. How could you forget about that?" Kagome doesn't get it. She knew for sure she told her parents about the divorce. And then something crossed her mind. "Dad, where were when I was married to Koga?"

That question alone made Mr. Higurashi think about it. "Where were you, dad?" Kagome repeats the question more urgently. "I was somewhere else at the time. I had no idea that you were married when I was gone." He replies back to her. So all this time. Kagome just sits into the empty chair. 'If he wasn't there when I was married then who…' She thinks hard to her. "It must've been Naraku who imposed your father while he was gone." Inuyasha tells her. Mr. Higurashi turns to him. "Really?" He asks the boy.

Inuyasha nods to him. "Yeah. And I was able to tell by the scent that escapes the body. If there was one thing I know about imposing, the real one scent remains the same, while the other's scent isn't that's how I was able to tell." He explains to the father. "So, he's somewhere else." Mr. Higurashi speaks first. "And I can tell that he's after me as well." Inuyasha confirms it as well. "But the only question is where he is? Koga told me his experience without knowing throughout his time that his father wanted him to leave the country. As soon as he left, Naraku disguised himself as the son to get to me." Kagome tells them for what Koga told her earlier because it turned out that he was innocent.

Inuyasha really wants to get out of this place and find Naraku, but he doesn't even have the slightest idea on where to start. "Dad why?" Kagome murmurs, but he was able to hear her. But then something crossed her mind. "Inuyasha, what kind of scent does my father have?" Kagome looks at him. Inuyasha stealthily sniffs the guy. "Not to be rude, Mr. Higurashi, but your scent is that of cedar wood and that old spice deodorant." Mr. Higurashi feels embarrassed about that claim but decides to ignore it though. True about the deodorant but the other scent caught him unguarded. "And what about Naraku's scent? Were you able to tell what kind of scent he has?" Kagome asks him. Thinking back when he saved her from his clutches at the warehouse. "His scent is something sickening. More like the scent of bugs when they're killed." He describes the details.

Just hearing that gave Kagome the shivering. "At least it's not the stink bugs when they're squashed." She comments to him. "And Kagome…" Mr. Higurashi speaks to her. Kagome looks back to him. "You don't have to tell me about when I asked about Inuyasha. His brother told me." Kagome sighs in relief, for she doesn't have to hold it in anymore. "I see. So my brother told you as well." Inuyasha looks at the father. "I'm sorry for what I did. I just don't want my daughter to be pushed to a corner." He starts off. "Dad, could you excuse us for a few minutes?" Kagome asks him beggingly. Mr. Higurashi can see how personal this topic is getting. "Of course." He leaves the room and closes the door behind him.

As soon as the door closed, Inuyasha spoke, "Kagome you know you didn't have to do that." Kagome looks at him. "Inuyasha, he didn't have to right to know about your backstory." She closes her eyes. "Kagome look at me in the eye." Inuyasha said to her in demand. Kagome obeys him. Inuyasha can see so much conflict in her brown eyes. "I know how much pressure you've been into, but you have to let that go and tell him how you feel about it." He spoke wisely. Kagome just closes her eyes. "Inuyasha, you don't know about my life. We just met a few days ago and I just told you about what happened recently, but I never told you everything about my life because I'm not ready to do that. All I know is whatever your brother told my dad and I. For I rather not tell anyone else about it because it's your business and no one else's." She spoke with seriousness in her voice.

All Inuyasha does is sigh. "Look, Kagome. Even if I were to be asked about my life, I would've done it anyway. Even if he thinks differently about us. He might even think that we're a couple, but that's not that kind of relationship we have. Not even close for that matter." Kagome can tell that he has point. There are times in someone's life that person will have no choice but to explain what that person went through and see what they can do about the future. All Kagome could is agree with him.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Kagome is still annoyed that her own father would barge in without even knocking on the closed. "What are you doing here anyway?" Kagome rather asks him instead. Mr. Higurashi sees how his daughter and the boy that she was with at the park are to each. "I was able to hear you from down the hallway when I came out of the elevator." Mr. Higurashi answers her calmly. "No, you were right outside when you eavesdropped on us." Inuyasha tells him instead. Kagome looks after her gasp. "Dad. Why would you do that?" She looks back at him. "Can you blame me, it's a father's duty to look after his own daughter." Mr. Higurashi crossed his arms feeling accused by the way Inuyasha spoke to him. "How could you not trust me, Dad? I'm an adult and you need to let me make my own choices. I don't need your opinion on which one I prefer to do." Kagome is just upset at this.

"Look, Kagome. I know what I did was wrong and I'm so sorry for what I had to put you through. I wouldn't done anything to go back and prevent that from happening." Mr. Higurashi tries to explain himself. Kagome immediate feels that she's been pushed into a corner, no way to get out the dangers that shadowed her. "But you didn't do a thing to make the pain go away. I was abused by him. I could never forgive him." Kagome sniffles.

Inuyasha can see how much suffering that Kagome is still going through. There's no doubt about it. "But why didn't you do anything about it?" Mr. Higurashi asks her. Kagome is confused. "Dad. I thought I told you what happened when I divorced that guy. And you of all people comforted me when I told you. How could you forget about that?" Kagome doesn't get it. She knew for sure she told her parents about the divorce. And then something crossed her mind. "Dad, where were when I was married to Koga?"

That question alone made Mr. Higurashi think about it. "Where were you, dad?" Kagome repeats the question more urgently. "I was somewhere else at the time. I had no idea that you were married when I was gone." He replies back to her. So all this time. Kagome just sits into the empty chair. 'If he wasn't there when I was married then who…' She thinks hard to her. "It must've been Naraku who imposed your father while he was gone." Inuyasha tells her. Mr. Higurashi turns to him. "Really?" He asks the boy.

Inuyasha nods to him. "Yeah. And I was able to tell by the scent that escapes the body. If there was one thing I know about imposing, the real one scent remains the same, while the other's scent isn't that's how I was able to tell." He explains to the father. "So, he's somewhere else." Mr. Higurashi speaks first. "And I can tell that he's after me as well." Inuyasha confirms it as well. "But the only question is where he is? Koga told me his experience without knowing throughout his time that his father wanted him to leave the country. As soon as he left, Naraku disguised himself as the son to get to me." Kagome tells them for what Koga told her earlier because it turned out that he was innocent.

Inuyasha really wants to get out of this place and find Naraku, but he doesn't even have the slightest idea on where to start. "Dad why?" Kagome murmurs, but he was able to hear her. But then something crossed her mind. "Inuyasha, what kind of scent does my father have?" Kagome looks at him. Inuyasha stealthily sniffs the guy. "Not to be rude, Mr. Higurashi, but your scent is that of cedar wood and that old spice deodorant." Mr. Higurashi feels embarrassed about that claim but decides to ignore it though. True about the deodorant but the other scent caught him unguarded. "And what about Naraku's scent? Were you able to tell what kind of scent he has?" Kagome asks him. Thinking back when he saved her from his clutches at the warehouse. "His scent is something sickening. More like the scent of bugs when they're killed." He describes the details.

Just hearing that gave Kagome the shivering. "At least it's not the stink bugs when they're squashed." She comments to him. "And Kagome…" Mr. Higurashi speaks to her. Kagome looks back to him. "You don't have to tell me about when I asked about Inuyasha. His brother told me." Kagome sighs in relief, for she doesn't have to hold it in anymore. "I see. So my brother told you as well." Inuyasha looks at the father. "I'm sorry for what I did. I just don't want my daughter to be pushed to a corner." He starts off. "Dad, could you excuse us for a few minutes?" Kagome asks him beggingly. Mr. Higurashi can see how personal this topic is getting. "Of course." He leaves the room and closes the door behind him.

As soon as the door closed, Inuyasha spoke, "Kagome you know you didn't have to do that." Kagome looks at him. "Inuyasha, he didn't have to right to know about your backstory." She closes her eyes. "Kagome look at me in the eye." Inuyasha said to her in demand. Kagome obeys him. Inuyasha can see so much conflict in her brown eyes. "I know how much pressure you've been into, but you have to let that go and tell him how you feel about it." He spoke wisely. Kagome just closes her eyes. "Inuyasha, you don't know about my life. We just met a few days ago and I just told you about what happened recently, but I never told you everything about my life because I'm not ready to do that. All I know is whatever your brother told my dad and I. For I rather not tell anyone else about it because it's your business and no one else's." She spoke with seriousness in her voice.

All Inuyasha does is sigh. "Look, Kagome. Even if I were to be asked about my life, I would've done it anyway. Even if he thinks differently about us. He might even think that we're a couple, but that's not that kind of relationship we have. Not even close for that matter." Kagome can tell that he has point. There are times in someone's life that person will have no choice but to explain what that person went through and see what they can do about the future. All Kagome could is agree with him.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Kagome decides to leave Inuyasha alone so he can rest up from his episode. There was no need to say that 'I'm going home.' Or 'Come back tomorrow.' Not a single farewell was on either of their minds. Maybe it was best they didn't say those words. Turns out that one what the word farewell is what affected Inuyasha the hardest. As soon as night falls, a nurse comes into his room. "Do you need anything?" She politely asks the patient. Inuyasha just shakes his head, "No. But I would like it to be dark in here. I can't sleep when the light is shining down." Inuyasha requested the nurse in the same tone. "I wish I could, but it's the hospital's policy to keep the lights on for the staff. We can't tell if anything were to happen with the light off." The nurse declines the request, must to Inuyasha's disappointment. "Ok." Inuyasha turns to his one side to get comfortable so he can sleep better. "Just let me know if you need anything." The nurse spoke to him. Inuyasha waves her of. As much as the nurse can see how much the light is so bright in the room, she decided to dim it down as much as she could to make the patient to be as comfortable as possible. As the light dims down, Inuyasha smiles thankfully.

Kagome makes it back at her parents' house. She knows that going back to her apartment wouldn't be an option at this point. As she gets out of her car, she sees her dad is waiting for her by the garage door. "How long were you waiting for me?" Kagome asks him. "Long enough." Mr. Higurashi replies back to her calmly. When Kagome found out that her father heard about Inuyasha's past from his brother, she feels that she wasn't involved in it. "Is there more you want to tell me what I don't know about Inuyasha?" Her father playfully teases her. Kagome on the other hand isn't in the mood. "No. You've learned more than enough about him as we speak." Kagome spoke back as she go inside. As she passes through the kitchen her mother spots her. "You need anything, Kagome?" She gently asks her daughter. "I'm good mom. I'm staying for the night if you don't mind." Kagome replies back as she leaves the room.

As Mr. Higurashi comes in, his wife places her hands onto her hips. As such it's not a good sign to him. "What?" That's all the husband asks. Ai shakes her hand, "Honestly Hige how much longer are you trying to get involved with Kagome's relationship with Inuyasha?" She asks the question. "I'm just looking out for her." Hige replies back to her. All Ai does is shake her head again. "What's wrong?" Hige asks her as he comes up to her. "Honey, you should know the difference between what's best for Kagome and what's best for him." Hige sighs, knowing that his wife about this. He should've known better. "I'm just worried that Kagome might get in that same spot again. I don't want her to get hurt again." Ai agrees with him. "And that's why Kagome needs to get over it. Even if it shows that Koga was a pawn and Kagome had been misled to not like him." She explains the position. "And Hige, from now on don't go beyond the boundary that Kagome has created from now on. She's not really happy for what you did back at the hospital." She warns him as she leaves the kitchen.

Back at the hospital, Inuyasha mumbles in his sleep. Soon his sight is guiding him somewhere else. As the fog clears out it shows that he's at the grave of his deceased wife. "Why am I here?" He asks to himself even though no one else is there as well. "I'm the one who called to you." A familiar voice speaks to him. Inuyasha sees the grave pulsating as well as glowing brightly. The glow begins to manifest into a spiritual being. The being makes Inuyasha's golden eyes widen in surprise. "Kikyo…" That name is more than enough to make the spirit of his wife to appear in front of him. "I'm glad to see you're okay as we speak." She speaks gently as she comes up to him. Inuyasha comes to embrace her but he goes right through her. "I'm so sorry, Inuyasha." Kikyo speaks to him as she turns around to see the inner sadness in Inuyasha's eyes.

"Sorry about what?" Inuyasha asks her. Kikyo sighs as she looks to him. "I thought that I was the one you've been looking for so far. But I guess I was wrong." Inuyasha is still confused. "Wrong about what exactly?" He asks her. Kikyo positions her hands as a vision shows Inuyasha something. From the moment that they met, until the time of her death. "I really thought I could fill in the void in your heart. I knew for sure your mother was very important to you. I thought I could make you happy." Kikyo begins. Inuyasha shakes his head. "You did make me happy. You know that." He tries to make sure she did. "But it wasn't the kind of happiness I could make you feel way." She spoke more specifically to make it easier for Inuyasha to understand what she's trying to tell him.

"Then what is it?" Inuyasha asks her gently. "It's the other happiness that your mother had within her. And that happiness is family. The bond that you had with her because she was the only one who made sure you didn't stray away from her grasps." Kikyo explains to him. As such she positions her hands to put up another vision of Inuyasha's mother and him as a child. All the good times and the sad ones. "And then there's her." Kikyo speaks as a new vision shows Kagome. "What does this have to do with her?" Inuyasha asks her.

Kikyo smiles, "I crossed paths with her at one point, but didn't speak with her directly, but I was able to sense an aura like yours." She tells him. "An aura like mine?" He tilts his head. "Kagome has gone through a similar situation. Since you saw her, she had that fondness that had that happiness she blocked since her divorce." At the end of the sentence Inuyasha widens his eyes. "I didn't say anything about her divorce." He shots back at her. Kikyo raised her hand. "I was able to tell by her posture before my death." She explains that to him. "As such she just couldn't get back onto her foot. You see she's just like you. From the worst moment of her life that left her scarred, she may look she's fine physically, but deep down she just couldn't go on." She keeps on telling him.

Inuyasha gets it now. That kind of happiness that Kagome has locked away from that divorce was released when she met him. "And as such your hidden search has come to an end." She concludes to him. "Inuyasha I really thought that I was the one you've been looking for, but it was false. I didn't want to believe it. I did all I could to make you happy even through our marriage. But when I passed Kagome, I found out that it's her who's that person you've been looking for without realizing it." She then presses her lips onto his. Instinctively, Inuyasha returns the kiss as the spirit fades away. "I'll be in your heart." She spoke.

Inuyasha sits up panting. He finds himself back in his hospital bed. "Just a dream." He lies back down. He looks to see it's only 4 in the morning. 'But if what Kikyo said is true, I have to let Kagome know about this.' He proclaims as he goes back to sleep.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

The next day, Kagome decides to stay at her parents since she still has Inuyasha's car in her parents' driveway. And it'd be just wrong to go back to her place and leave the car behind. So, to do the right thing is to wait until Inuyasha is discharged from the hospital. As such she should go there to check up on him. She looks outside to see her father getting the newspaper from the paper slot. She checks her charged phone and saw two missed calls from Sango. Kagome knows that Sango doesn't leave voicemail. It's not her thing. The only thing that Kagome knows the reason is that Sango is trying to get a hold of her. Might as well call her back

After a few rings, "Finally you noticed." Sango jokes on the other line of the call. "Sorry for not answering you sooner. I was in the hospital." Kagome spoke back. "What are you okay?" Sango asks her worryingly. "I'm fine. Inuyasha was in the hospital. I was in the waiting room and I had to have my phone on silent." Kagome calms her down. "What happened to him?" Sango asks. "He just had a psychological attack. Nothing serious." Kagome replies. "Oh. I had no idea. I hope he's ok." Sango is relieved to hear that.

"So why did you call me last night?" Kagome asks her the main question. "I called about our Wednesday night. You know game night." Sango reminds her irritated this time. Kagome widens her eyes. "Oh right. I forgot all about that. Is there anyway I could make it up to you?" She apologizes in guilt. Sango took a second to think of the best solution that works in her favor. "Ok, but first of all, where are you anyway?" Kagome chuckles, "I'm back at my parents." She tells her friend. "You stay there. I'm coming over." Sango spoke quickly as then she hangs up.

Kagome shakes her head, "Really, Sango?" She sits back onto her bed. She looks around her old bedroom. Even though she moved out, she made sure that she leaves a good amount of clothes behind so if she were to crash for the night, she can change into something else instead of the same outfit she had on. She sighs and then gets up to tidy up the room. She knows better not to leave a messy room when she goes back to her place.

She heads down stairs to see her mom drinking her coffee. "Morning mom." Kagome smiles at her. Ai smiles back, "Morning, honey." She greets back. "Where's dad?" Kagome asks as she gets herself some coffee. "He's in the garage." Her mother answers the question. Kagome nods as she heads out to the garage. She comes out to see her dad is checking out Inuyasha's car. "Dad, what are you doing?" Kagome asks him in surprise.

Hige turns around from checking what's under the hood. "Oh I didn't hear you come in." Hige wipes his hands clean. "You know that's Inuyasha's pride and joy." Kagome places her hands onto her hips. Her father was always curious about cars. Old or new. It doesn't matter. "I know. I'd never expect someone like him could afford something like." He said honestly. All Kagome does is shake her head. "Dad, when are you ever going to learn to stay out of someone else's business?" She reminds him on a constant event whenever she catches him doing something that he's not really supposed to be doing.

Hige knows for sure that his daughter is right. He should've known better than snooping into someone's privacy. Talk about rude. A car pulls into the driveway. Hige smiles to see another car to look. Kagome catches the glimpse and twisted his wrist, "Don't you dare." She warns him as she walks up to the new car's side. "Took you long enough, Sango." Kagome playfully said to her. "Oh come on. It's just a half an hour drive." Sango defends herself. "Hello, Mr. Higurashi." She greets the father. "Hello Sango, it's nice seeing you." He greets back. Sango spots Inuyasha's car. "What's his car doing here? You told me that he's in the hospital." She spoke. "He was picked up by an ambulance the other day and I was the only one who brought it here." Kagome explains the situation. Sango looks around the car to make sure it didn't get damaged. Not a scratch. "It's good thing that it's not broken. Inuyasha would've killed you." Sango comments the vehicle's condition.

Kagome nods. "Not bad for my first time driving that thing. I know how much this means to him." Hige didn't expected that detail. "What do you mean by that, Kagome?" He asks her. She growls in annoyance. "If you didn't know anything about this car, dad. This car was a gift for him from his wife." Hige gasps at that. "Oh. I had no idea about that." He speaks gently to them. Kagome groans, "Seriously dad. You don't know anything about him." She walks back into the house with Sango behind her.

Ai looks up from the paper to see Kagome and Sango. "Oh hello, Sango." She greets. Sango smiles back. "Hello, Mrs. Higurashi." Sango greets back and then follows Kagome upstairs. Ai notices the look in Kagome's eye. Not a good sign. A few seconds later, Hige comes back. "Honey." She speak in a scary voice. Hige follows the sound and comes into the room. "Yes, dear?" He asks her nervously. Ai puts the paper onto the table and crossed her arms. "What did you do this time?" Ai asks him. "I overstepped my boundary." Hige gave her the obvious answer, yet it's been quite common. "I see. So you rudely snooped Inuyasha's car." She narrows her eyes.

"Yes, I did. I learned more than I shouldn't have." Hige replies back to her. "I just wanted make sure it was in good condition when Inuyasha is allowed to drive it back to his place." He spoke. "Wrong." Ai quickly spoke to prevent him from anymore lying. "I know you're too curious about cars. I know it's fine to check on your car, my car and Kagome's car. But checking someone else's care without their permission is rude. Why?" She pokes his check. That alone is more than enough to have Hige scared of her. And she has every right to make him feel that way. All Hige does is gulp.

Up in Kagome's room, Sango is sitting on Kagome's desk chair while Kagome is sitting on her bedside. "I hope driving his car wasn't too tough for you." Sango spoke. Kagome nods. "I did have a hard time trying to get used to drive something so precious to him. But I got the hang of it." She smiles in the end. "So, do you wanna go see if Inuyasha's doing okay?" Asks Sango. Kagome nods in agreement.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Kagome and Sango are about to head out Kagome's house. "Kagome, a word please." Hige calls out to her as he spots her about to open the back door. "I…" Kagome is about to protest. "Now." Hige sternly spoke. Kagome sighs, "Wait for me in the car." Kagome whispers to Sango. Sango nods and leaves the father and daughter alone. As Kagome comes into the den where her father is waiting patiently. "What is it, dad?" She asks as she sits into one of the couches. "I just want to say I'm sorry for earlier this morning." Hige begins. However, Kagome isn't convinced, even the sincerity in her father's voice. "Dad. Even if I were to accept your apology, I cannot guarantee that you're going to do it again." Kagome responds back to him.

Hige sighs, "I know how you feel about me doing this, but it's a habit that I simply cannot break." Kagome raised her one eyebrow. "Really? More like an addiction if you ask me." She crossed her arms. "Look Kagome, I'm trying everything I can to prevent myself from doing something that I shouldn't be doing." He reasons with her. At that point Kagome stood up. "If I were to know any better about you, you're acting like a child instead of a mature parent." She spoke pridefully as she leaves the den and leaves the house.

As soon as Kagome left the house, Ai comes into the den to see how Hige is looking. From the posture of holding his head while his elbows are resting on his knees. "I guess it didn't work?" She asks him. Hige shakes his head to give her the answer. "Honey. You should know that your pride is something you think is your best solution to any problem, but that's not it." Ai wisely said to him.

"I spoke in sincerity to prove that I'm truly sorry about what I did. I don't understand why she didn't accept my apology." Hige groans as he sits back up. Ai shakes her head. "Hige, Kagome is like you. She inherited your stubbornness. That's why she isn't easy to convince no matter how true the topic is. She just doesn't want to believe it." She explains their daughter's personality. "I had no idea that she'd get that from me to be honest. Her face shape is from my side of the family." Hige looks at his wife. Ai sits next to him. "But her eyes and hair are from me. And you can't change that." She adds her traits.

As Kagome casually drives to the hospital, Sango can see that something is troubling her. "You ok?" She risks her question. "It's nothing to be concerned about." Kagome nonchalantly replies as she has to stay focused on the road. "I know it has to do with your father." Sango keeps going. "Sango you getting into hot waters here. Kagome keeps the tone like last. "All he did was apologize for what he did this morning, and I didn't accept it." Kagome tells her as they pull up to the parking lot. "Oh." Sango got her real answer.

Kagome and Sango head up to Inuyasha's hospital room. As Kagome is about to knock, the door already opens up for them. "Miroku? What are you doing here?" Sango asks him surprised. "I'm here for you." He flirts with her as he grabs her hand obviously. Sango yanks her captured hand away. "Like hell you're here for me." She glares at him. "Fine, come on in. How did you know that we were at the door?" Sango asks him. Miroku points his thumb to Inuyasha. "Duh." Inuyasha mocks him. "And there's a strict rule where only one visitor per patient is permitted." Inuyasha reminds Miroku. "Absolutely. Sango. We need to leave them alone." He seriously said as he grabs her wrist and take her out the room. "See you later." Miroku farewells while closing the door behind him.

Once the room quickly became quiet, none of the two wanted to speak because they both believe for whatever they say would come out wrong. Kagome sees that the windows is shut off with the curtains closed. She decides to open them up. Soon the sunlight beams in the room to give it a natural glow. "You know you didn't need to do that." Inuyasha spoke first. Kagome turns around to see him in an awkward position. "I wanted to, not needed to." Kagome corrects his sentence. "So uh, when will you be discharged?" She asks him.

"Not until tomorrow actually. The doctor doesn't want me to go out to get into another episode." Inuyasha explains the reason. "Oh, I thought that you'd be out by now." Kagome spoke disappointedly. "Believe me, Kagome. I really wanted to get out of this place, but it's up the doctor to make the final decision." He said while crossing his arms. Kagome noticed that the IV is gone so Inuyasha wouldn't have to go through the painful moment. "I have your car back at my house." Kagome said a few minutes later.

"It's okay, right?" Inuyasha asks her immediately. "Yeah, not a single scratch, dent, anything to it. But there's one thing that bothers me though." Kagome frowns in the end. Inuyasha spots the look. "What happened?" He urgently asks her. "My dad is so noisy about cars that he couldn't help himself to check the engine and the other parts of the car. I had to get him away from because I know how much that car means to you." Inuyasha ahs silently. "I see. Well you're right about one thing. My car means a lot to me because me and Kikyo bought that car when we got married. That's the only thing she wanted. So far the loan is covered so there's no need to pay the company anymore. The insurance made sure of that." Inuyasha is relieved from the start. "I knew for sure your dad was too curious for his own good." He comments in the end.

"Tell me about it. When I got my car the first thing, he did was to check the engine and everything else was in tip top shape." Kagome groans. "But Kagome, that's what dads do. They want to make sure your safe with it. I know how embarrassing it because he's just looking out for you." Inuyasha explains to her about the duty of a parents. Even though Inuyasha has a good point about, Kagome just doesn't want to believe it. "I know, but I'm not a child anymore. Why can't he see that?" Kagome sits down in the chair next to the bed. As soon as she sat down, Inuyasha reaches out to grasps her wrist. "Kagome, I may not have my mom or dad with me at the moment, but I know for sure they still see us that way despite on how much time goes by and we grow older. They still treasure those moments that they don't want to want us to get to that point in time to prove them about our maturity. My mom made sure that Sesshomaru to look after me until the time I became independent, but he still make sure to check up on me from time to time." Inuyasha wisely spoke to her.

Just hearing that made Kagome weepy. She knows for sure that Inuyasha is absolutely right about it. She should have not snapped at her dad before coming over. The least she should do is to apologize on how rude she was to him that morning.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

With the advice, Kagome feels that she wants to hug Inuyasha. Just when she's about to do that, the door opens up quickly. "Kagome!" Sango shouts out to her. Before Kagome could react to Sango's sudden outburst, she lands onto Inuyasha's stomach. Inuyasha grunts from the impact. "Sorry." Kagome apologizes quickly as she gets off of him. "Really Sango?" Kagome asks as she turns her face away to prevent her friend seeing the red face of embarrassment. Inuyasha kind of does the same thing.

Instead Sango quickly finds Inuyasha's TV remote and turns to a channel. "This just in…" The tv reporter speaks. Kagome and Inuyasha look at it. "The suspect Naraku Gerito has been arrested from his home for multiple charges." That alone made Inuyasha and Kagome gasps. "Whoa." That's all Inuyasha could say at this point. Miroku comes in. "Did you show them?" He asks Sango, Sango nods her answer. "Oh this just in." The reporter spoke as she grabs a hold of her ear since it has an earpiece to receive vital information. "The charges are imposing a victim, kidnapping, and blackmail."

So far, the group knows about Kagome being kidnapped and Naraku imposing as Koga. But the blackmail charge was new to them. "Maybe your dad might know about this." Inuyasha gives an idea. Kagome nods. "Sango, go get my parents here." Kagome tells her friend. "Why me?" Sango complains. "No time to explain. I'll give them a call to let them know that you're going to pick them up and bring them here." That's all Kagome could tell her as she gets her phone out of her purse.

Miroku grabs hold of Sango's hand and gets her out of the room. "What's going on here?" Sango asks him. "Shh." He silent her. "Mom, hey, I just wanna let you that Sango is going to your house to pick up you and dad." They heard Kagome spoke onto her phone. "Keep your end of the bargain and do as she says. I'll stay here and keep and eye on them." Miroku said serious. That alone made Sango leave the building. He goes back to the room. "Why did you send Sango to your parents house?" He asks Kagome. "Oh that's for barging in without knocking." Kagome explains to him. Still furious at what she did. "I might as well leave you two since it's the right thing to do. I'll wait in the waiting area." Miroku said as he leaves the room to get the privacy that Inuyasha Kagome deserve.

Ai hangs up the phone. "What was that all about?" Hige asks her. "Sango is coming over to pick us up and take us to the hospital that she and Kagome went earlier." Ai explains to him so far. "We're both just fine as we speak." Hige said to her. "Maybe Kagome wants to talk to us about something at the hospital." Ai comes up with the one reason. Soon enough the car that Kagome drove pulls up to the driveway. "That's our cue." Ai said as she grabs her purse while Hige grabs his wallet. They leave the house and get into the car.

"What's going on, Sango?" Ai asks Sango. "You're guess is as good as mine, Mrs. Higurashi." Sango replies as she pulls onto the street and head off the hospital. "So you have no idea what's going on?" Hige asks her. All Sango does is shake her head. It doesn't take long for them to get to the hospital. Sango easily guides them to the floor where Inuyasha's room is located in the building. As they get off the elevator, "Sango." Miroku spoke as he gets their attention. "Oh what are you doing out here?" Sango asks him curiously. "To make sure you don't interrupt another moment they might be in." Miroku spoke to her adamantly.

Hige was about to rush to the room, until Ai grabs his shoulder. "Don't." She warns him gently. Hige forgot what Miroku meant what he said to Sango. Instead Ai quietly walks up to the door that has Inuyasha's name on it. She then knocks on the door, "Kagome?" She asks for her daughter. "Come in." Kagome calls back to allow them in. "What's going here, honey?" Hige asks her as they enter. All Kagome does is point to the tv with her thumb. Ai and Hige look up to see what's on tv. They gasp. "Oh my." Ai covers her mouth. Hige doesn't seem that surprised as his wife. "So far we know about the charges about the kidnapping and imposing as Koga, but the last one is blackmail. Do you know any of this, dad?" Kagome asks him. Ai looks at him, "Blackmail? What's going on here, Hige?" She asks him worriedly. Looks like there's more secrets that Hige is hiding that she thought. Hige sighs, "It was during the poker game I had with the boys back then." He starts off.

_Flashback_

_ Hige and Hirako are playing their weekend night of Poker. Among them were Naraku and one of the workers from the business. So far they place their chips to see who might win the game etc. "So what's going on with the business?" Naraku asks Hige. Hige is not too fond of having this guy here in the same room. "Nothing new, just going the way it's supposed to." Hirako casually responds back to him. The fourth guy is the quiet one. Not to say a thing. "Very well. I bet 20." Naraku puts two more chips in the group. _

_ Hirako and Hige looked at each in surprise. "You know if you lose this round, you're out the game." Hirako warns him with suspicion in his voice. "I'm aware, but not concerned." Naraku calmly spoke back. Hige remains suspicious about Naraku's behavior. He knows big whenever he's either bluffing or being dishonest. "I'm in as well." The fourth guy spoke for once as he puts 20 into the pile. "Ok, who is this guy anyway?" Hige asks Hirako in murmur. "Your guess is as good as mine." Hirako raises his shoulders. Soon enough Naraku puts his cards onto the table. (Trust me I know nothing about poker) The fourth one puts his cards down. Same amount. "Ooh what a bummer." Hirako comments as he puts his cards to show that his set was higher than the first two. Hige puts his set down. "Looks like Hirako wins." He smiles at him. Naraku doesn't seem too upset about losing the game. And neither does the fourth player of the game._


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Hige sighs at her. "You heard what the news said. The police arrested him for those crimes. The question you should be asking is how he was discovered in the first place." Kagome feels so dense to realized what she just said before her father corrected it. "Ok, so then how was he discovered?" She asks the proper question to make the conversation more sense. "I'm not sure, Kagome. But whatever happened to make sure Naraku is discovered, we should be thankful for that." Hige said to her. Soon enough the door is knocked. "Who is it?" Inuyasha asks the person from the outside.

The door opens to reveal Hirako. "Hirako, what are you doing here?" Hige is surprised to see him, along with Koga behind him. "You oughta thank me to get to that jerk arrested." Hirako smirks at him. "So it was you who did it? How though?" Kagome asks him. Hirako and Koga tap their noses, "Never underestimate our scent of smell. When we left your house yesterday. We had to go fill up our car until another car pulled up to fuel up as well. Little did either of us knew it, that car had Naraku's scent. And to make sure that he didn't spot us, Koga put a tracking device to pinpoint his location and give it to the police to get him. We even told them not to mention us in the report because of us being witnesses on the case." Hirako tells the story,

"It's not a coincidence that you two ended up there." Kagome comments the moment. Koga nods. "True. It'd be as if they knew who we were and to make sure we didn't do anything to him, which we did." He agrees with her. "So with him in jail, there's nothing to worry about anymore." Hige spoke this time. "Now that I gave you our little secret, we'll leave you guys alone." Koga spoke as he leaves the room as his father follows him out.

"Kagome do you have something to say to your father?" Inuyasha reminds her. "Something I need to know?" Hige asks Kagome. Inuyasha nods his head. "Dad, before the news reported about Naraku's arrest, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for snapping at you this morning. I had no right to speak to you like. You have every right to be mad at me about that. Just like you who couldn't help himself with something to know about a little more, I got that from you." Hige smiles gently. "I know, but you should be careful for what you say to me from now on. If there's only one thing that's true about the two of us is that we have that stubbornness." Hige accepts his daughter's apology. Kagome just wraps her arms around him. Hige returns the hug. "And now I know there's something else that needs to be taken care of here." Hige pulls back as he leaves the two alone.

Once the door closes, Inuyasha gestures Kagome to come to him. "Do you need anything?" Kagome asks him nicely. Inuyasha grabs her wrist which surprised her. Soon enough he pulls her onto the bed with him. "What are you…" Before she could finish her question, Inuyasha kisses her on the lips. Kagome's instincts is telling to get away from him, but her mind is preventing that because one of Inuyasha's hands is behind her head. 'Why bother?' She thought to herself as she returns the kiss.

They pull apart. "What was that all about?" Kagome asks him still confused for what they just did. "I don't know what came over me." Inuyasha said back to her. Not just that he presses his hand onto her creek. "Ever since I saw you, I just couldn't help myself to keep my eyes off of you. That when I finished my wife's funeral, I made a promise to never again to fall in love. If I did, I'd be in the same path where my loved one to end up dead." He explains his reason.

Kagome grasps his hand. "I kind of said the same thing when I leave court for my divorce, even if Koga was innocent the entire after finding out that Naraku was imposing him. Never did I ever expect to meet someone like you to take away my suffering." She said as her tears begin to build up in her chocolate brown eyes. Inuyasha just smiles fondly. "I guess we were both wrong about never falling in love again. So far Koga understood the misunderstanding you. Little did I know, Kikyo told me to love you as much that I loved her. She knew her time with me were the best ones of her life. And she wanted to make sure that I keep on living my life with you from now on." Inuyasha embraces her like no tomorrow. Not to waste another second, they kiss yet again.

3 Months later

It didn't take long for Inuyasha to propose to Kagome the moment he was discharged. Everyone were surprised about it. Somehow Kagome parents were happy that Kagome find the right man for her. Not just that, Miroku made the same decision to propose to Sango. If things couldn't get any better, the two couples would have their weddings on the same month that had a lunar eclipse because they find amazing to see the moon to be in red hue. During the wedding, Inuyasha decides to wear the same suit he wear for his previous wedding. He just didn't told Kagome about it. Better be safe than sorry because Inuyasha didn't want Kagome to imagine the wedding when he married Kikyo at that time. It's a good thing that the suit fits him like a glove. Kagome wedding dress was to die for. The dress is meant to be a one of a kind. It has a lovely shape that only fits her. It just made Inuyasha mentally drool. And once they kiss at their wedding they made sure not to say that phrase again.

THE END

* * *

Okay guys. Hope you enjoyed the story. I'm going to take a break for awhile. I don't know when I'll either resume any of my incomplete story or start a new one. It's just my laptop has been having an issue. So that's why I wanted to finish this story as soon as possible.

InuyashasGrl26


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